Police Department
Shamed Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins passed away after being attacked in the neck in an alleged prison incident, an investigation has heard.
Watkins, forty-eight, succumbed on 11 October after being assaulted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been completing a 29-year prison sentence for child sex crimes including the attempted rape of a baby.
The inquest, opened earlier at Wakefield Coroner's Court, was postponed pending the conclusion of an associated murder case.
Two individuals have been charged with murder in connection to Watkins' death while two other suspects, aged 23 and 39, arrested earlier this week on suspicion of conspiracy to murder were sent back to prison as investigations continued.
Coroner Statement
Coroner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was identified 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 formally identified by a prison officer.
Mr Longstaff said emergency services were summoned to the jail "after a report he had been attacked in the neck".
The examiner said a autopsy report gave the cause of death as an incision to the throat.
'Extreme Wickedness'
In 2013 at Cardiff Crown Court, Watkins denied rape but confessed to the sexual assault and sexual assault of a child under 13.
He pleaded guilty to 13 offences, including conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving creating, producing or holding indecent images of children and one of possessing an shocking image involving a sex act on an animal.
Legal authorities had portrayed him as a man influenced by fame, drugs, and power who had perpetrated crimes "beyond imagination."
Mr Justice Royce said the case had broken "new ground" and "plunged into new levels of depravity".
Watkins was also stabbed in prison in 2023. Following that incident, he was taken to hospital with wounds which were not life-threatening.
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 once one of Wales' most famous musicians - the frontman of the rock band Lostprophets.
The band formed 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 popular charts.
They disbanded immediately after Watkins was convicted in 2013.
His previous bandmates spoke publicly about their surprise and revulsion.
Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Even though I was completely done 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 remaining bandmates and American singer Geoff Rickly formed a new band, No Devotion, soon after.
