🔗 Share this article

Police Department

Disgraced Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins passed away after being stabbed in the neck in an alleged prison attack, an investigation has heard.

Watkins, 48, succumbed 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 completion of an related murder case.

Two individuals have been charged with murder in connection to Watkins' death while two other men, aged 23 and 39, detained earlier this week on suspicion of plot to murder were returned to prison as investigations continued.

Coroner Findings

Coroner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was identified 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 officially recognized by a prison guard.

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

The coroner said a post-mortem report gave the cause of death as an incision to the neck.

'Extreme Wickedness'

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

He pleaded guilty to 13 crimes, including plotting to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, making or holding indecent images of children and one of possessing an shocking image involving a sex act on an creature.

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

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

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

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

Background of Ian Watkins?

Media Archives

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

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

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

The group also had some achievement 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 group members spoke publicly about their surprise and revulsion.

Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Even though I was completely finished with him, I wished 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 remaining bandmates and American singer Geoff Rickly created a new band, No Devotion, shortly thereafter.