Disgraced Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins was killed behind bars aged 48 on Saturday while serving time for a string of vile sex crimes – including assaulting children
Lostprophets’ pedophile Ian Watkins was previously stabbed in prison before his murder behind bars. The disgraced musician was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment in 2013 after being found guilty for a string of sex crimes – including assaulting children.
News broke on Saturday that the former singer had been stabbed to death by a fellow inmate after cell doors were unlocked. But it is not the first time the musician, who was 48 when he died, had been stabbed behind bars.
Back in August 2023, the Lostprophet’s star, from Pontypridd, was left with non-life threatening injuries after he was attacked in HMP Wakefield. He was taken to a nearby hospital at the time and an investigation was launched into the incident.
It was later revealed he had been taken hostage by three other inmates and it took prison officers six hours to get him released. His injuries were found to be not life-threatening and the motive for the attack was later explained as an unsettled £900 drugs debt.
On Saturday, it was revealed that Watkins had been killed on Friday while behind bars. Reports stated that he was “ambushed” by fellow inmates, who slashed his throat. A source told The Sun: “Watkins has been killed in the most brutal way possible – and the attack was shocking, even by prison standards.
“He was targeted by another inmate who shanked him in the neck. Guards were nearby and raced to the scene pretty quickly – but there was nothing they could do, and they could not save him.”
The attack has been described as “really shocking and gruesome” and reports suggesting that the incident was ‘pre planned’ by the culprit. It is not the first time that Watkins had been attacked behind bars – leading to a suggestion he was on borrowed time while in jail.
In 2013, the Welsh native pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to 13 child sex offences. He also admitted to the rape and sexual assault of a child who was under the age of 13.
Watkins 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.
Sentencing Mr Justice Royce said the case broke ‘new ground’ and ‘plunged into new depths of depravity’. He said Watkins had a ‘corrupting influence’ and had shown a ‘complete lack of remorse’. He added Watkins posed a significant risk to the public in particular to women with young children.
The musician was later handed an extra 10 months after he was discovered to have a mobile phone in his possession while behind bars. Initially, he denied having a three-inch GSTAR phone in his cell. As the verdict was read out, Watkins claimed that “known murderers” in his prison told him to keep an eye on the phone after chucking it on his bed.
During the hearing, Judge Rodney Jameson QC said: “I am very conscious of the fact you are serving a very long time and you will be well into middle age by the time you are released. The fact of the matter is if there is not an appreciable penalty for having had a mobile phone in these circumstances then of course you would draw from that the lesson you could have another one and that is not a position I would want to encourage.”
Speaking about possible repercussions, he said: “Chances are someone would sneak up behind me and cut my throat. It’s not like one-on-one. Stuff like that, you don’t see it coming.”
He is said to be sharing his wing with murderers, killers, rapists and paedophiles, who he described as “the worst of the worst”. Asked to describe his music career during an earlier appearance, Watkins told the court his band had sold between five and ten million records across the world between 1999 and 2012. Watkins said the Lostprophets had toured all over the world, headlining at Wembley Arena and the MEN Arena in Manchester.
