Former Lostprophets frontman and convicted paedophile Ian Watkins stabbed in prison
Disgraced Lostprophets frontman and convicted paedophile Ian Watkins has been stabbed in prison.
The Welsh sex offender is serving a 29-year sentence with a further six years on licence in HMP Wakefield. He is interred on various child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a baby.
Multiple reports suggest that Watkins was taken hostage by three other inmates just after 9am on Saturday morning. The Mirror claims that he suffered stab wounds and beatings before he was freed by prison officers approximately six hours later. Witnesses told the publication that paramedics worked to save his life in an ambulance outside the prison.
A spokesperson for the Prison Service said: “Police are investigating an incident which took place on Saturday at HMP Wakefield. We are unable to comment further while the police investigate.”
A source told the publication: “He was found by officers after being held hostage and battered on Saturday morning. He’s in a life-threatening condition and there are fears he could die. If he survives, he’ll have been very lucky.”
In 2013, the former Lostprophets frontman pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to 13 child sex offences. As part of this, he admitted to the rape and sexual assault of a child who was under the age of 13. He also admitted to the conspiracy to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, making or possessing obscene images of children, and one of possessing an extreme image involving a sex act on an animal.
At the sentencing, Mr Justice Royce told the court that the case “plunged into new depths of depravity”. He said the musician had a “corrupting influence” and showed a “complete lack of remorse” for his crimes. He noted Watkins as a significant threat to women and young children in the public.
In 2019, Watkins was handed an extra ten months on to his sentence after he was found with a mobile phone in prison. The court heard he had hidden the device from the prison officers in his anus. At the time, he initially denied having the three-inch GSTAR phone in his possession.
During the hearing for that crime, Judge Rodney Jameson 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.”
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