Cause of Paedophile Singer's Jail Demise Revealed

Police Department

Disgraced Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins passed away after being stabbed in the throat in an reported prison incident, an investigation has learned.

Watkins, forty-eight, died on 11 October after being targeted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been completing a 29-year jail sentence for child sex offences including the sexual assault of a infant.

The inquest, opened earlier at Wakefield Coroner's Court, was postponed pending the completion of an associated murder case.

Two individuals have been accused with murder in relation to Watkins' death while two other suspects, aged 23 and 39, arrested earlier this week on suspicion of conspiracy to murder were returned to prison as inquiries proceeded.

Coroner Statement

Coroner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was referred to by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the short hearing, had been declared deceased at the West Yorkshire prison by an attending doctor and was formally identified by a prison officer.

Mr Longstaff said paramedics were called to the jail "after a report he had been stabbed in the throat".

The examiner said a autopsy report gave the cause of death as an wound to the throat.

'Extreme Wickedness'

In 2013 at Cardiff Crown Court, Watkins refuted rape but confessed to the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13.

He admitted 13 offences, including conspiring to rape a child, three counts of abuse involving children, seven involving taking, making or holding inappropriate images of children and one of having an extreme image involving a sex act on an animal.

Legal authorities had described him as a man corrupted by celebrity, drugs, and power who had committed crimes "beyond imagination."

Mr Justice Royce said the case had broken "unprecedented territory" and "plunged into new depths of depravity".

Watkins was also stabbed in prison in 2023. Following that attack, he was taken to hospital with wounds which were not fatal.

Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, were presented in court last week charged with his murder, but were not asked to enter pleas.

Who Was Ian Watkins?

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Watkins was formerly one of Wales' most famous musicians - the frontman of the rock band Lostprophets.

The band started in Pontypridd in 1997, and distributed millions of albums across the world.

They produced five studio albums, one of which reached number one in the UK.

The group also had some achievement in the US, with their second and third albums reaching the popular charts.

They disbanded immediately after Watkins was convicted in 2013.

His former bandmates spoke openly about their surprise and revulsion.

Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Although I was completely finished with him, I wished it was all a error, he was innocent, he had to be.

"The first time, we knew the band was finished. You can't return from that."

The other bandmates and American singer Geoff Rickly formed a new band, No Devotion, soon after.