🔗 Share this article

Police Department

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

Watkins, forty-eight, succumbed on 11 October after being targeted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been serving a 29-year prison sentence for child sex crimes 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 individuals have been charged with murder in connection to Watkins' death while two other suspects, aged 23 and 39, detained earlier this week on suspicion of conspiracy to murder were sent back to prison as investigations proceeded.

Official Statement

Medical Examiner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was identified by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the short hearing, had been declared deceased at the West Yorkshire prison by an on-call doctor and was formally identified by a prison officer.

Mr Longstaff said emergency services were summoned to the jail "after a report he had been attacked in the throat".

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

'Extreme Wickedness'

In 2013 at Cardiff Crown Court, Watkins refuted rape but admitted the sexual assault and sexual assault 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 creating, making or possessing inappropriate images of children and one of possessing an extreme image involving a sex act on an creature.

Legal authorities had described him as a man corrupted by fame, substances, and power who had perpetrated crimes "exceeding imagination."

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

Watkins was also attacked in prison in 2023. After that incident, 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 accused with his murder, but were not required 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 formed in Pontypridd in 1997, and sold millions of albums around 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 convicted in 2013.

His former bandmates spoke publicly about their surprise and revulsion.

Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Although I was completely finished with him, I wished 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 return from that."

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