Police Department
Disgraced Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins passed away after being attacked in the neck in an reported prison incident, an inquest has learned.
Watkins, forty-eight, succumbed on 11 October after being assaulted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been completing a 29-year jail sentence for child sex crimes including the sexual assault of a infant.
The inquest, opened earlier at Wakefield Coroner's Court, was postponed pending the conclusion of an associated murder case.
Two individuals have been accused with murder in relation to Watkins' death while two other suspects, aged 23 and 39, arrested earlier this week on suspicion of plot to murder were returned to prison as inquiries continued.
Coroner Statement
Medical Examiner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was referred to by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the short proceeding, had been pronounced dead at the West Yorkshire prison by an attending doctor and was formally identified by a prison officer.
Mr Longstaff said emergency services were called to the jail "after a report he had been stabbed in the throat".
The examiner said a autopsy report gave the cause of death as an wound to the neck.
'Extreme Wickedness'
In 2013 at Cardiff Crown Court, Watkins refuted rape but confessed to the sexual assault and abuse of a child under 13.
He pleaded guilty to 13 offences, including plotting to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, producing or possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme image involving a sex act on an creature.
Prosecutors had portrayed him as a man influenced by celebrity, substances, and power who had perpetrated crimes "beyond imagination."
Mr Justice Royce said the case had broken "unprecedented territory" and "descended into new depths of depravity".
Watkins was also stabbed in prison in 2023. After 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 accused with his murder, but were not required to enter responses.
Who Was Ian Watkins?
Media Archives
Watkins was formerly one of Wales' most famous artists - the frontman of the rock band Lostprophets.
The band started in Pontypridd in 1997, and sold millions of albums around the world.
They released five studio albums, one of which achieved number one in the UK.
The group also had some success in the US, with their second and third albums attaining the top-40.
They disbanded promptly after Watkins was found guilty in 2013.
His previous group members spoke publicly about their surprise and disgust.
Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Although I was completely done with him, I wished it was all a error, he was innocent, he had to be.
"The first time, we knew the band was done. You can't go back from that."
The other members and American singer Geoff Rickly formed a new band, No Devotion, shortly thereafter.
