Police Department
Shamed Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins passed away after being stabbed in the neck in an alleged prison attack, an inquest has learned.
Watkins, forty-eight, succumbed on 11 October after being targeted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been completing a 29-year jail sentence for child sex crimes including the attempted rape of a infant.
The inquest, opened earlier at Wakefield Coroner's Court, was adjourned pending the completion of an associated murder trial.
Two men have been accused with murder in relation 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 investigations continued.
Official Findings
Coroner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was referred to by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the brief hearing, had been pronounced dead at the West Yorkshire jail by an attending doctor and was officially recognized by a prison officer.
Mr Longstaff said paramedics were summoned to the jail "after a report he had been attacked in the neck".
The coroner said a autopsy report gave the cause of death as an incision to the neck.
'Depths of Depravity'
In 2013 at Cardiff Crown Court, Watkins denied rape but confessed to the attempted rape and abuse of a child under 13.
He pleaded guilty to 13 offences, including plotting to rape a child, three counts of abuse involving children, seven involving creating, making or possessing inappropriate images of children and one of having an shocking image involving a sex act on an animal.
Legal authorities had portrayed him as a man corrupted by fame, drugs, and power who had perpetrated crimes "exceeding imagination."
Mr Justice Royce said the case had broken "new ground" and "descended into new levels of depravity".
Watkins was also attacked in prison in 2023. After that attack, he was taken to hospital with injuries which were not life-threatening.
Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, appeared in court last week accused with his murder, but were not required to enter responses.
Background of Ian Watkins?
Media Archives
Watkins was once one of Wales' most famous 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 attaining the top-40.
They separated immediately after Watkins was convicted in 2013.
His previous bandmates spoke publicly about their shock and revulsion.
Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Even though I was completely finished with him, I wished it was all a mistake, he was innocent, 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 created a new band, No Devotion, shortly thereafter.
