Reason of Child Sex Offender Singer's Jail Death Revealed

Police Department

Disgraced Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins passed away after being attacked in the neck in an alleged prison incident, an investigation has heard.

Watkins, forty-eight, died on 11 October after being assaulted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been completing a 29-year prison sentence for child sex crimes including the attempted rape of a baby.

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

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

Coroner Statement

Medical Examiner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was referred to by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the brief hearing, had been declared deceased at the West Yorkshire prison by an attending doctor and was formally recognized by a prison guard.

Mr Longstaff said emergency services were called to the jail "after a report he had been attacked in the throat".

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

'Depths of Depravity'

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

He pleaded guilty to 13 offences, including conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, producing or holding inappropriate images of children and one of possessing an extreme image involving a sex act on an creature.

Prosecutors had portrayed him as a man influenced by fame, drugs, and power who had committed crimes "exceeding imagination."

Mr Justice Royce said the case had broken "new ground" and "descended into new depths of wickedness".

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

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

Who Was Ian Watkins?

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

The band started in Pontypridd in 1997, and sold millions of albums around the world.

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

The group also had some success in the US, with their second and third albums attaining the top-40.

They disbanded immediately after Watkins was found guilty in 2013.

His former bandmates spoke publicly about their shock and revulsion.

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

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

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