Police Department
Shamed Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins passed away after being stabbed in the throat in an alleged prison incident, an inquest has heard.
Watkins, forty-eight, succumbed on 11 October after being targeted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been completing a 29-year prison sentence for child sex offences including the sexual assault 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 accused with murder in relation to Watkins' death while two other suspects, aged 23 and 39, arrested earlier this week on suspicion of plot to murder were sent back to prison as inquiries 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 proceeding, had been declared deceased at the West Yorkshire prison by an attending doctor and was formally recognized by a prison officer.
Mr Longstaff said emergency services were summoned to the jail "following a report he had been stabbed in the neck".
The coroner said a autopsy report gave the cause of death as an wound to the neck.
'Depths of Depravity'
In 2013 at Cardiff Crown Court, Watkins refuted rape but admitted the sexual assault and sexual assault of a child under 13.
He admitted 13 offences, 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 portrayed him as a man influenced by fame, substances, and power who had committed crimes "exceeding imagination."
Mr Justice Royce said the case had broken "new ground" and "descended into new levels of depravity".
Watkins was also stabbed in prison in 2023. Following that incident, he was taken to hospital with injuries which were not fatal.
Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, appeared in court last week charged with his murder, but were not required to enter responses.
Who Was Ian Watkins?
Media Archives
Watkins was formerly one of Wales' most famous artists - 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 achieved 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 former group members spoke openly about their surprise and disgust.
Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Even though I was completely finished with him, I hoped it was all a error, he was innocent, he had to be.
"The first time, we knew the band was finished. You can't return from that."
The other members and American singer Geoff Rickly formed a new band, No Devotion, shortly thereafter.
