Ian Watkins, the convicted child sex offender and former frontman of Lostprophets, has been killed in prison at the age of 48.
As confirmed by West Yorkshire Police, the singer was attacked by a fellow inmate at Wakefield Prison today (October 11) and died from his injuries.
“At 9.39am this morning (Saturday), police were called by staff at HMP Wakefield reporting an assault on a prisoner,” a police statement said. “Emergency services attended and the man was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later. Detectives from the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team are investigating and inquiries remain ongoing at the scene.”
A prison source told The Sun: “He was targeted by another inmate who shanked him in the neck. Guards were nearby and raced to the scene pretty quickly – but there was nothing they could do, and they could not save him.”
Watkins was serving a 29-year sentence, with a further six years on license. He pleaded guilty to 13 sex offences in 2013, including the attempted rape of a baby, conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, making or possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal.
In 2023, he was attacked and taken hostage by three other inmates, before being found and freed by officers and taken to hospital. It was later reported that Watkins had been stabbed with a “sharpened toilet brush” over a drug debt.
A 2024 book titled Life Behind Bars In The Monster Mansion by Jonathan Levi and Emma French claimed that Watkins had “spent thousands on protection” while in prison, explaining that rough justice is “particularly likely” to be “meted out” to paedophiles in jail.
In 2017, Watkins was reported to have been grooming a mother from his prison cell. The 21-year-old’s child was subsequently taken into care after social services were alerted of her contact with the disgraced singer.
‘We’re sickened,” said a spokesman from the NSPCC at the time. “It’s utterly bewildering that he could carry on grooming. It shows contempt for children he abused, and raises serious questions about supervision.”
At the time, it was said that prison officials in Wakefield reportedly found “nothing untoward” in their exchanges via letters and emails. A spokesman from Lincolnshire police meanwhile added: “We will always take action to safeguard vulnerable adults and children.”
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