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Ian Watkins is dead. The former singer of the band Lostprophets was, according to consistent media reports, in the maximum security prison on Saturday HMP Wakefield attacked with a knife by a fellow prisoner in West Yorkshire on October 11th. According to reports, Watkins was pronounced dead at the scene.
A spokesman for the British Penitentiary Service said they could not comment on the current incident while the police investigation was ongoing, citing “BBC“.
Prison sentence since 2013
Watkins has been serving since 2013 one 35 year prison sentence for multiple sexual abuse of minors and other serious sexual crimes. He was arrested in September 2012 after police raided his home in Pontypridd (Wales) had seized numerous computers, cell phones and storage media as part of a drug raid.
Ian Watkins: Attacked by fellow prisoners as early as 2023
Already 2023 Watkins was in HMP Wakefield Became a victim of a serious act of violence. Three fellow inmates held him hostage for several hours and injured him with a knife before special forces from the prison administration intervened. Watkins survived the attack with serious injuries, but has since been considered a vulnerable inmate.
Watkins’ indictment included 13 counts of sexual assault and one count of attempted rape of a child under 13 years old. Watkins had admitted his crime in court. Two women who had made their children available to Watkins for abuse were also sentenced to 14 and 17 years respectively. After Watkins’ confession in December 2013, the remaining members of Lostprophetsthey were “devastated, angry and disgusted“. In a statement on Facebook, they emphasized that they knew nothing about their frontman’s actions and initially thought the allegations were a mistake. After the guilt became known, the band finally broke up.