🔗 Share this article

Police Department

Shamed Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins passed away after being attacked in the neck in an reported prison attack, an investigation has learned.

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 sexual assault of a infant.

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

Two men 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 investigations continued.

Coroner Findings

Medical Examiner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was identified by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the short proceeding, had been pronounced dead 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 neck".

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

'Depths of Depravity'

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

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

Legal authorities had portrayed him as a man influenced by celebrity, drugs, and influence who had perpetrated crimes "beyond imagination."

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

Watkins was also attacked in prison in 2023. After that incident, he was taken to hospital with injuries 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.

Background of Ian Watkins?

Media Archives

Watkins was formerly one of Wales' most recognisable artists - the lead singer of the rock band Lostprophets.

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

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

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

They disbanded promptly after Watkins was found guilty in 2013.

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

Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Although I was completely done with him, I hoped it was all a mistake, he was innocent, 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, shortly thereafter.