Ian Watkins was serving a 29-year jail sentence at HMP Wakefield for child sex offences when he was attacked and killed. A coroner has opened an inquest into his death
Depraved Ian Watkins who was killed in HMP Wakefield, dubbed ‘monster mansion’ for its high profiled inmates(Image: SOUTH WALES POLICE/AFP via Getty)
Depraved Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins was stabbed in the neck in prison an inquest has heard.
Disgraced rock star Watkins, 48, who was serving a 29-year jail sentence at HMP Wakefield for child sex offences was set upon earlier this month.
Area coroner, Mr Oliver Longstaff, opening the inquest into his death at Wakefield said: “Ian David Karslake Watkins was born 30th July 1977 in Wales, he was single gentleman at the time of his death a serving prisoner at HMP Wakefield.”
Rock star Ian Watkins was serving a 29 year jail term after admitting raping a baby and other child sex offences(Image: Redferns)
He said he was formally pronounced dead on October 11 this year by an attending doctor and identified by a prison officer.
A forensic post mortem, the coroner said, found he had been stabbed in the neck and the provisional cause of death was ‘incision wound to the neck’.
“Clearly a death in in those circumstances require an inquest,” he added. The opening, which lasted three minutes, was adjourned.
Four people have now been arrested in connection with his death. The coroner said the inquest was opened and adjourned pending the outcome of the ‘criminal justice justice process’
Watkins was once one of Wales’ most recognisable musicians – the frontman of the rock band Lostprophets. The band was formed in Pontypridd in 1997 and they went on to sell millions of albums around the world.
The band was disbanded after the paedophile singer from Pontypridd was convicted in December 2013 for a string of child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a baby.
Ian Watkins at a Manchester gig in 2013 a year before the crimes came to light(Image: Redferns via Getty Images)
At his trial prosecutors described Watkins as a man corrupted by fame, drugs and power who committed crimes ‘beyond imaginations’.
Watkins was sentenced to 29 years in prison with a further six years on licence, and his two female co-defendants were jailed for 14 and 17 years.
The singer had previously been attacked at the same prison in August 2023, when he was reportedly taken hostage and stabbed by fellow inmates before being freed by officers six hours later. He had non-life-threatening injuries.
The attack at Wakefield Prison came two weeks after a report was published that found violence there had “increased markedly”.
The report from the chief inspector of prisons said: “Many prisoners told us they felt unsafe, particularly older men convicted of sexual offences who increasingly shared the prison with a growing cohort of younger prisoners.”
His appeal against the length of his sentence was rejected in 2014. During sentencing, Mr Justice Royce said the case broke “new ground” and “plunged into new depths of depravity”.
“Any decent person… will experience shock, revulsion and incredulity.” He said Watkins had a “corrupting influence”, and had shown a “complete lack of remorse”.
Watkins admitted the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13 but pleaded not guilty to rape.
He also admitted conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, making or possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal.
His trial heard Watkins had used his fame to manipulate and control others, often under the influence of hard drugs, including crystal meth.
After Watkins was sentenced, Des Mannion, NSPCC national head of service for Wales, said: “Watkins used his status and global fame as a means to manipulate people and sexually abuse children.
“But we must nevertheless remember that this case isn’t about celebrity, it’s about victims. And those victims are children.”
