🔗 Share this article

Police Department

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

Watkins, forty-eight, died on 11 October after being targeted 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 postponed pending the completion of an related murder trial.

Two individuals have been accused with murder in connection 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 inquiries proceeded.

Coroner Findings

Coroner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was referred to by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the brief proceeding, had been pronounced dead at the West Yorkshire prison by an on-call doctor and was formally identified 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 throat.

'Depths of Depravity'

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

He admitted 13 offences, including conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving creating, making or possessing indecent 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 influenced by celebrity, drugs, and influence who had perpetrated crimes "beyond 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 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 charged with his murder, but were not asked to enter responses.

Who Was Ian Watkins?

Media Archives

Watkins was formerly one of Wales' most famous musicians - the frontman of the rock band Lostprophets.

The band formed in Pontypridd in 1997, and distributed millions of albums around the world.

They produced 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 popular charts.

They disbanded immediately after Watkins was found guilty in 2013.

His previous bandmates spoke openly about their surprise and revulsion.

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 finished. You can't return from that."

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