A rock singer has been killed in a prison stabbing, according to British police.
Former Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins is dead at 48 after being attacked with a knife at HMP Wakefield, a prison in West Yorkshire, England. He was pronounced dead at the scene Saturday morning.
Watkins, best known as the voice of 2000s rock hits like “Rooftops” and “Last Train Home,” was serving a 29-year sentence for child sex crimes. He was first arrested in 2012 on a drugs warrant when a large number of computers, phones and storage devices were seized.
According to the Associated Press, Watkins pleaded guilty in 2013 to more than a dozen charges, including trying to rape a baby, sexually touching a 1-year-old child, encouraging a fan to abuse her child and making child pornography. During his sentencing, Judge John Royce called Watkins a manipulative and dangerous sexual predator who had abused his fame to help satisfy his “insatiable lust.”
Two men, ages 25 and 43, have been arrested in the murder investigation, West Yorkshire Police said. Their names have not been released, but The Guardian sources confirmed Watkins was attacked with a knife by another inmate.
Watkins previously suffered non-life-threatening stab wounds in 2023 at the same prison in northern England. The BBC reports Wakefield Prison was recently criticized for a reported increase in violence less than two weeks ago.
“Many prisoners told us they felt unsafe, particularly older men convicted of sexual offenses who increasingly shared the prison with a growing cohort of younger prisoners,” the chief inspector of prisons said.
Watkins co-founded Lostprophets, a Welsh alternative rock/nu-metal band, in 1997. The group won Best Metal Act at the 2002 NME Awards; topped the UK charts in 2006 with its third album, “Liberation Transmission”; and hit No. 1 on the U.S. Alternative Songs chart with “Last Train Home.”
Lostprophets officially disbanded in 2013. Former members Stu Richardson and Lee Gaze formed a new band, No Devotion, with Thursday singer Geoff Rickly in 2014.
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