Reason of Child Sex Offender Singer's Jail Death Revealed

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Disgraced Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins died after being attacked in the neck in an alleged prison incident, an inquest has heard.

Watkins, forty-eight, succumbed on 11 October after being assaulted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been serving a 29-year prison sentence for child sex offences including the attempted rape of a infant.

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

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 plot to murder were returned to prison as inquiries continued.

Coroner Statement

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 attending doctor and was officially identified by a prison officer.

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

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

'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 sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, making or holding inappropriate images of children and one of having an extreme image involving a sex act on an creature.

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

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

Watkins was also stabbed in prison in 2023. Following that incident, he was taken to hospital with wounds which were not fatal.

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

Who Was Ian Watkins?

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Watkins was once 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 across the world.

They released 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 disbanded immediately after Watkins was convicted in 2013.

His former bandmates spoke publicly about their shock and revulsion.

Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Although I was completely done with him, I hoped it was all a mistake, he was not guilty, he had to be.

"The first time, we knew the band was done. You can't go back from that."

The other bandmates and American singer Geoff Rickly formed a new band, No Devotion, soon after.