Police Department
Disgraced Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins died after being stabbed in the throat in an alleged prison incident, an inquest has heard.
Watkins, forty-eight, died on 11 October after being assaulted at HMP Wakefield, where he had been serving a 29-year jail sentence for child sex offences including the sexual assault of a infant.
The hearing, opened earlier at Wakefield Coroner's Court, was postponed pending the completion of an associated murder trial.
Two individuals have been charged with murder in connection to Watkins' death while two other suspects, aged 23 and 39, detained earlier this week on suspicion of plot to murder were returned to prison as investigations proceeded.
Coroner Findings
Medical Examiner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was identified by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the brief proceeding, had been declared deceased at the West Yorkshire prison by an on-call doctor and was formally identified by a prison guard.
Mr Longstaff said emergency services were summoned to the jail "after a report he had been stabbed in the throat".
The examiner said a post-mortem report gave the cause of death as an incision to the neck.
'Depths of Depravity'
In 2013 at Cardiff Crown Court, Watkins refuted rape but confessed to the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13.
He pleaded guilty to 13 offences, including conspiring to rape a child, three counts of abuse involving children, seven involving taking, producing or holding indecent images of children and one of having an shocking image involving a sex act on an creature.
Prosecutors had described him as a man influenced by celebrity, substances, and power who had committed crimes "exceeding imagination."
Mr Justice Royce said the case had broken "unprecedented territory" and "descended into new levels of depravity".
Watkins was also attacked in prison in 2023. After that attack, he was taken to medical facility 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 responses.
Who Was Ian Watkins?
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Watkins was once one of Wales' most recognisable musicians - the frontman of the rock band Lostprophets.
The band formed in Pontypridd in 1997, and distributed millions of albums around the world.
They produced 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 separated immediately after Watkins was convicted in 2013.
His previous bandmates 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 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 other bandmates and American singer Geoff Rickly formed a new band, No Devotion, soon after.
