🔗 Share this article

Police Department

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

Watkins, 48, died on 11 October after being targeted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been completing a 29-year prison sentence for child sex offences including the sexual assault of a infant.

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

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 conspiracy to murder were sent back to prison as investigations proceeded.

Coroner Findings

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 pronounced dead at the West Yorkshire prison by an attending doctor and was formally identified by a prison guard.

Mr Longstaff said emergency services were called to the jail "following a report he had been stabbed in the neck".

The coroner said a autopsy report gave the reason of death as an incision to the throat.

'Extreme Wickedness'

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

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

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

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

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

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 once one of Wales' most famous artists - the lead singer of the rock band Lostprophets.

The band formed in Pontypridd in 1997, and distributed millions of albums around 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 reaching the top-40.

They disbanded promptly after Watkins was found guilty in 2013.

His former group members spoke publicly about their shock and disgust.

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

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

The other members and American singer Geoff Rickly formed a new band, No Devotion, shortly thereafter.