Police Department
Shamed Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins passed away after being stabbed in the neck in an reported prison incident, an investigation has learned.
Watkins, 48, succumbed on 11 October after being assaulted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been completing a 29-year prison sentence for child sex offences 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 individuals have been charged with murder in connection to Watkins' death while two other suspects, aged 23 and 39, detained earlier this week on allegation of plot to murder were sent back to prison as investigations proceeded.
Official Findings
Medical Examiner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was referred to by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the short hearing, had been declared deceased at the West Yorkshire prison by an attending doctor and was formally recognized by a prison officer.
Mr Longstaff said paramedics were called 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 sexual assault and abuse of a child under 13.
He admitted 13 crimes, including plotting to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving creating, producing 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 celebrity, substances, and power who had committed crimes "exceeding imagination."
Mr Justice Royce said the case had established "unprecedented territory" and "descended into new depths of depravity".
Watkins was also stabbed in prison in 2023. After 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 asked to enter responses.
Who Was Ian Watkins?
Media Archives
Watkins was formerly one of Wales' most recognisable musicians - the lead singer of the rock band Lostprophets.
The band started in Pontypridd in 1997, and sold millions of albums across 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 reaching the top-40.
They disbanded promptly 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 not guilty, he had to be.
"The first time, we knew the band was finished. You can't go back from that."
The remaining members and American singer Geoff Rickly formed a new band, No Devotion, soon after.
