Ian Watkins, the convicted paedophile who was the vocalist in rock band Lostprophets, has been killed in prison aged 48.

Watkins was murdered by a fellow inmate at Wakefield Prison on October 11th. He was serving 35 years for a string of child sex offences, including attempting to rape a baby.

West Yorkshire Police confirmed the death in a statement: “At 9.39am this morning (Saturday), police were called by staff at HMP Wakefield reporting an assault on a prisoner. Emergency services attended and the man was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.”

The statement continued: “Detectives from the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team are investigating and inquiries remain ongoing at the scene.”

According to The Sun, Watkins’ jugular was slashed in an ambush attack, and he died from blood loss. His killer has been identified.

A prison source told the aforementioned publication: “He was targeted by another inmate who shanked him in the neck.”

They continued, “Guards were nearby and raced to the scene pretty quickly – but there was nothing they could do, and they could not save him.”

It’s also been reported that the scene was “really shocking and gruesome”. Watkins was air-lifted to the hospital following the attack, but could not be saved by medics.

In 2023, Watkins was taken hostage by three other inmates for six hours; he suffered stab wounds and beatings before he was eventually freed by prison officers.

What charges was Ian Watkins convicted of?

In 2013, the former Lostprophets frontman pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to 13 child sex offences. He was previously arrested in 2012 for drug possession, which led police to confiscate his computer and find indecent images of children on the device.

During the trial, he admitted to the rape and sexual assault of a child who was under the age of 13. He also admitted to the conspiracy to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, making or possessing obscene images of children, and one of possessing an extreme image involving a sex act on an animal.

Two co-defendants, who were the mothers of Watkins’ victims, were sentenced to 14 and 17 years in prison.

At the sentencing, Mr Justice Royce told the court that the case “plunged into new depths of depravity”. He said the musician had a “corrupting influence” and showed a “complete lack of remorse” for his crimes.

In 2019, Watkins was handed an extra ten months to his sentence after he was found with a mobile phone in prison.

Watkins would have been eligible for parole after serving two-thirds of his sentence.

After Watkins was charged with the string of child sex offences in 2012, his bandmates in Lostprophets issued a statement explaining to fans they had learned of the investigation at the same time as them. They subsequently cancelled all live shows before announcing their split.

Lostprophets response to Watkins’ conviction

Following his guilty plea, band members Lee Gaze, Luke Johnson, Mike Lewis, Jamie Oliver and Stuart Richardson said in a statement, “Earlier this week, we learned that the allegations of child sexual abuse against Ian were true, and that he would not be contesting them in court. Until then, we found them extremely difficult to believe and had hoped it was all a mistake. Sadly, the true extent of his appalling behaviour is now impossible to deny.”

They also described the singer as a “a difficult character” in a social media post and admitted his relationship with the rest of Lostprophets had “deteriorated in recent years to a point that working together was a constant, miserable challenge.”

During an interview with The Guardian in 2014, Richardson said the band staged an intervention with Watkins due to his drug abuse towards the end of their tenure.

The bassist shared, “We had an intervention with him to get him off coke, and he denied he was doing it, and then a year later he was addicted to crystal meth. The gigs in 2012 were awful – on tour, he was barely functioning; he’d miss cues for songs and wasn’t interacting with the audience.”

He also maintained that he wasn’t close with Watkins and stated that “we would only get together to do our job”.

The group formed in 1997, released five studio albums, including 2006’s Liberation Transmissions, which topped the UK Chart, and sold more than three million records. They released their final album, Weapons, in April 2012, eight months before Watkins was charged.

Richardson, Gaze, Oliver and Lewis later formed the band No Devotion following Watkins’ conviction. They were created in 2015, and have released two albums. Oliver and Lewis departed the band in 2017.

In July, Gaze reflected on Lostprophets in a post on X, writing, “It’s been 13 years since my band ended in the most unimaginable circumstances, and it’s still painful to think about. Things could’ve been so different.”

He continued, “I dont talk about it much but I put everything into that band and it should’ve lasted a lifetime. I never really wronged anyone my whole life so it seemed like the ultimate punishment.”

No members of Lostprophets have yet commented on Watkins’ death.