🔗 Share this article Reason of Child Sex Offender Singer's Prison Death Disclosed Police Department The shamed rock star from Pontypridd was handed to 29 years in jail plus six years on extended licence Disgraced Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins passed away after being attacked in the throat in an alleged prison incident, 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 hearing, opened earlier at Wakefield Coroner's Court, was adjourned pending the conclusion of an related murder trial. Two individuals have been charged with murder in relation to Watkins' death while two other men, aged 23 and 39, detained earlier this week on suspicion of plot to murder were sent back to prison as investigations continued. Coroner Findings Medical Examiner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins, who was identified by his full name of Ian David Karslake Watkins during the brief hearing, had been pronounced dead at the West Yorkshire jail by an attending doctor and was officially identified by a prison officer. Mr Longstaff said paramedics were summoned to the jail "following a report he had been stabbed in the neck". The examiner said a post-mortem report gave the cause of death as an incision to the throat. 'Extreme Wickedness' In 2013 at Cardiff Crown Court, Watkins refuted rape but admitted the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13. He pleaded guilty to 13 crimes, including plotting to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, producing or holding indecent images of children and one of having an extreme image involving a sex act on an creature. Legal authorities had described him as a man influenced by fame, drugs, and power who had perpetrated crimes "beyond imagination." Mr Justice Royce said the case had established "unprecedented territory" and "plunged into new depths of depravity". Watkins was also stabbed in prison in 2023. Following that attack, he was taken to medical facility with injuries which were not life-threatening. Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, were presented in court last week charged with his murder, but were not asked to enter pleas. Background of Ian Watkins? Media Archives Watkins appearing in London in 2012 Watkins was formerly one of Wales' most recognisable artists - 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 achieved number one in the UK. The group also had some achievement in the US, with their second and third albums reaching the top-40. They separated promptly after Watkins was found guilty in 2013. His former bandmates spoke openly about their shock and disgust. Bassist Stuart Richardson said in 2014: "Although I was completely finished with him, I wished it was all a mistake, he was innocent, he had to be. "The first time, we knew the band was finished. You can't go back from that." The remaining bandmates and American singer Geoff Rickly created a new band, No Devotion, shortly thereafter.