🔗 Share this article

Police Department

Disgraced Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins passed away after being stabbed in the throat in an alleged prison attack, 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 crimes including the sexual assault of a baby.

The hearing, opened earlier at Wakefield Coroner's Court, was adjourned pending the completion of an associated murder trial.

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

Coroner Findings

Medical Examiner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was identified by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the brief proceeding, had been pronounced dead at the West Yorkshire jail by an attending doctor and was officially recognized by a prison officer.

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

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 denied rape but admitted the sexual assault and abuse of a child under 13.

He admitted 13 offences, including conspiring to rape a child, three counts of abuse involving children, seven involving creating, producing or possessing inappropriate images of children and one of having an shocking image involving a sex act on an creature.

Prosecutors had described him as a man corrupted by celebrity, substances, and power who had committed crimes "exceeding imagination."

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

Watkins was also attacked in prison in 2023. After that incident, he was taken to medical facility with wounds which were not fatal.

Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, appeared in court last week accused with his murder, but were not asked to enter responses.

Who Was Ian Watkins?

Media Archives

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

The band formed 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 reaching the top-40.

They disbanded immediately after Watkins was found guilty in 2013.

His previous group members spoke publicly about their surprise and revulsion.

Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Although I was completely finished with him, I hoped it was all a error, he was not guilty, he had to be.

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

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