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Police Department

Shamed Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins died after being stabbed in the neck in an reported prison attack, an investigation has heard.

Watkins, forty-eight, succumbed on 11 October after being targeted 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 trial.

Two men have been accused with murder in relation to Watkins' death while two other suspects, aged 23 and 39, arrested earlier this week on allegation of conspiracy to murder were returned to prison as investigations continued.

Coroner Statement

Medical Examiner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was identified by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the short hearing, had been declared deceased at the West Yorkshire prison by an attending doctor and was formally identified by a prison officer.

Mr Longstaff said paramedics were called to the jail "following a report he had been attacked in the throat".

The coroner said a autopsy report gave the cause of death as an incision to the throat.

'Extreme Wickedness'

In 2013 at Cardiff Crown Court, Watkins denied rape but admitted the sexual assault and abuse of a child under 13.

He admitted 13 crimes, including plotting to rape a child, three counts of abuse involving children, seven involving taking, making or holding inappropriate images of children and one of possessing an extreme image involving a sex act on an animal.

Legal authorities had described him as a man influenced by celebrity, drugs, and power who had perpetrated crimes "exceeding imagination."

Mr Justice Royce said the case had established "new ground" and "plunged into new depths of depravity".

Watkins was also attacked in prison in 2023. After that incident, he was taken to hospital with injuries which were not fatal.

Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, were presented in court last week charged with his murder, but were not required to enter pleas.

Who Was Ian Watkins?

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Watkins was once one of Wales' most famous musicians - the frontman of the rock band Lostprophets.

The band formed in Pontypridd in 1997, and sold millions of albums across the world.

They released five studio albums, one of which reached number one in the UK.

The group also had some achievement in the US, with their second and third albums attaining the popular charts.

They disbanded promptly after Watkins was found guilty in 2013.

His previous bandmates spoke openly about their surprise and disgust.

Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Although I was completely finished with him, I hoped it was all a mistake, he was not guilty, he had to be.

"The first time, we knew the band was finished. You can't return from that."

The remaining bandmates and American singer Geoff Rickly created a new band, No Devotion, shortly thereafter.