Ian Watkins, ex-Lostprophets singer jailed for abusing Doncaster baby, hospitalised after prison stabbing

According to reports from The Mirror, Watkins is said to be in a 'critical condition' after being taken hostage by three fellow inmates yesterday morning (Saturday, August 5, 2023).

A Prison Service spokesperson said: "Police are investigating an incident which took place on Saturday at HMP Wakefield.

"We are unable to comment further while the police investigate."

Watkins was reportedly 'stabbed in the neck' as he was held hostage for six hours, with officers needing to wait for specially trained, and armed, riot officers, dubbed the 'Tornado team' to break up the incident.

Reports published in The Sun suggest Watkins, now aged 46, had 'a target on his back' among inmates at the notorious West Yorkshire prison.

In December 2013, the former frontman was jailed for a total of 29 years, after admitting to a string of child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a 11-month-old baby from Doncaster.

Watkins and the baby's mother, named only as Woman A, abused the child together.

Woman A was sentenced to 14 years' custody during the same sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court.

Another of Watkins' accomplices, Woman B, the mother of another child the twisted paedophile abused, was also jailed for 17 years.

The former Lostprophets' frontman was arrested, following the execution of a drugs warrant at his Pontypridd home on September 21 2012 when a large number of computers, mobile phones and storage devices were seized.

Analysis of the equipment revealed Watkins' sickening crimes.

In 2017, a report from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) concluded that South Yorkshire Police officers in Doncaster failed to take seriously complaints made by Watkins' former girlfriend, Joanne Mjadzelics, who lived in Doncaster at the time.

The findings in the report from the IPCC, which has since been replaced by the Independent Office for Police Conduct, revealed that the force’s failings “put a child at risk of further abuse of further abuse for several months”.

Ms Mjadzelics made repeated allegations to South Yorkshire Police between March and May 2012, but officers failed to act on each occasion. This followed similar treatment by South Wales Police, to which she made repeated allegations between 2008 and 2009. The force closed its initial investigation into Watkins’ criminality in 2009.

Speaking shortly after the report was published, Ms Mjadzelics said: “I think he got off on the fact the police weren’t doing anything. He knew I had been going to the police about him, but he kept telling about the sickening things he was doing with this twisted grin on his face. I’d be crying and telling him to stop, but he’d carry on.

“He thought he was untouchable, invincible and that he had the police in his back pocket – and they kept proving him right.”