🔗 Share this article

Police Department

Shamed Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins passed away after being attacked in the neck in an alleged prison incident, 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 offences including the sexual assault of a infant.

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

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

Coroner Findings

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

Mr Longstaff said emergency services were summoned 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 incision to the throat.

'Depths of Depravity'

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

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

Legal authorities had described him as a man corrupted by fame, drugs, and influence who had committed crimes "exceeding imagination."

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

Watkins was also attacked in prison in 2023. After that attack, he was taken to medical facility 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 asked to enter pleas.

Who Was Ian Watkins?

Media Archives

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

The band started in Pontypridd in 1997, and sold 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 success in the US, with their second and third albums reaching the popular charts.

They separated promptly after Watkins was found guilty in 2013.

His former bandmates spoke openly about their shock and revulsion.

Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Even though I was completely done 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 created a new band, No Devotion, soon after.