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Ian Watkins, the lead singer of the now-disbanded band Lostprophets was found stabbed in his jail cell inside HMP Wakefield by the prison’s guards and rushed to a hospital in a “life-threatening condition.”
Photograph: South Wales Police/PA
A pedophile Welsh rock singer who confessed to sexual offenses against young children and babies is fighting for his life after he was stabbed and held hostage by fellow inmates inside one of the harshest prisons in the UK, according to a report.
Ian Watkins, 46, the former lead singer of the now-disbanded band Lostprophets, was found stabbed in his jail cell inside His Majesty’s Prison Wakefield by the prison’s guards and rushed to a hospital in a “life-threatening condition.”
“There are fears he could die. If he survives, he’ll have been very lucky.” sources told the Mirror.
Three inmates took Watkins, 46, hostage around 9 a.m. on Saturday where he was stabbed multiple times and beaten up before prison personnel “freed” him six hours later, the outlet reported.
Watkins founded Lostprophets in 1997 until the band disbanded in 2013 when he was sentenced to jail.
Watkins was 10 years into his 29-year prison sentence for several child sex offenses, including attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under the age of 13, and possession of child pornography.
Watkins’s sexual assaults date back to at least March 2007, when he videoed himself having “oral, vaginal and anal sex” with a 16-year-old female, according to court documents.
A year later, Watkins and a different 16-year-old female — who was his fan — had oral sex as she snorted a white powder believed to be cocaine, the documents read.
Watkins’s ex-girlfriend Joanne Mjadzelics alerted police that the singer had told her he had given a child cocaine and touched the victim inappropriately, the Guardian reported in 2017.
Police didn’t look into the initial allegation and later determined there was insufficient evidence for Mjadzelics’ claim, but received multiple complaints regarding Watkins’ behavior.
Wakins’ legal troubles began in 2012 when he was arrested three times for drug charges, which included possession of methamphetamines and cocaine.
After his third arrest, police searched his property and computer, where they found “overwhelming evidence that he was a pedophile,” according to the Guardian.
During his trial in November 2013, Watkins’ most heinous crimes were revealed.
He formed a relationship with two fans who were mothers to a 10-month-old boy and an “infant girl” respectively and allowed Watkins’ to engage in anal and oral sex between March 2011 and October 2012, the sentencing remarks from December 2013 read.
Both adults eventually pleaded guilty to conspiring to rape.
Justice John Royce, the judge who oversaw the sentencing described Watkins as a “highly manipulative” predator.
“I am satisfied that you are a deeply corrupting influence; you are highly manipulative; you are a sexual predator; you are dangerous,” Royce said, according to the trial transcript.
At least 90 photos were found in Watkin’s possession displaying indecent photos of children ages ranging from 2 to 14 years old.
HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire, England, is an all-male high-security facility that holds up to 750 prisoners.
The prison is nicknamed the “Monster Mansion” because of the high-profile, high-risk prisoners it has housed including Harold Shipman, deemed the most prolific serial killer in modern history,” Charles Bronson the “most violent prisoner in Britain” and currently holding Robert Maudsley, the real-life “Hannibal the Cannibal.”
