Former Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins died from a stab wound to the neck, an inquest has heard. The 48-year-old, who was serving a 29-year sentence for child sexual offences, died after an alleged attack at HMP Wakefield on 11 October.
At a hearing at Wakefield Coroner's Court on Friday, coroner Oliver Longstaff said Watkins was pronounced dead by a doctor at the prison and formally identified by a prison officer. Paramedics had been called following a report that he had been stabbed in the neck. A postmortem gave the cause of death as an incision to the neck.
Two inmates, Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, have been charged with murder. The coroner said his investigation would be suspended pending the outcome of the criminal justice process. Two other men, aged 23 and 39, have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder and bailed back to prison.
Watkins was jailed in December 2013 for 29 years, with an additional six years on licence, after admitting a string of sex offences, including the attempted rape of a fan's baby. He was previously taken to hospital after an attack in 2023, and in 2019 was given an additional 10-month sentence for possessing a mobile phone in prison.
