It has been revealed that Lostprophets’ Ian Watkins was stabbed with a “sharpened toilet brush” in prison last year.
The disgraced former singer is currently serving a 29-year sentence, with a further six years on license, in HMP Wakefield on various child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a baby.
Back in August 2023, The Mirror reported that Watkins was attacked and taken hostage by three other inmates on August 5. After he was found and freed by officers, he was taken to hospital.
A Prison Service spokesperson told the outlet: “Police are investigating an incident which took place on Saturday at HMP Wakefield. We are unable to comment further while the police investigate.”
Police went on to share an update on Watkins’ health, writing in a statement: “West Yorkshire Police were notified by staff at HMP Wakefield of an assault on a prisoner on the afternoon of Saturday, 5 August. He was taken to hospital where his injuries are not understood to be life-threatening. Enquiries are ongoing.”
Now, as reported by The Mirror, it was claimed that the ‘Rooftops’ singer was stabbed with a sharpened toilet brush over a drug debt. An account in the new book Life Behind Bars in the Monster Mansion by Jonathan Levi and Emma French detailed that the stabbing was due to Watkins having a £900 ($1,150) drug debt.
The book also reveals that the disgraced singer has “spent thousands on protection” while in prison due to his fellow inmates despising him. They explained that rough justice is “particularly likely” to be “meted out” to paedophiles in prison.
“The recent stabbing was a reminder that he needs to pay. He took an amount of spice off a prisoner with a prison value of £150. Because it was Watkins, he was told he owed £900. He was high and refused to pay; therefore, he was stabbed in the side using a sharpened toilet brush,” read an account from the book (via The Mirror).
A different prisoner told the authors that Watkins is “hated by many” but due to HMP Wakefield being mixed and filled with “VPs and high-level gangsters, drug importers and organized crime, they just take money off him for his safety.”
Watkins was jailed in December 2013 after pleading guilty to 13 sex offences at Cardiff Crown Court, including the aforementioned attempted rape of a baby, conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, making or possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal.
So far, the former singer has served over a decade behind bars and is eligible for parole in 2031. Back in 2019, he hide a phone in his anus which led to an extension of his sentence.
In 2017, Watkins was reported to have been grooming a mother from his prison cell. The 21 year-old’s child was subsequently taken into care after social services were alerted of her contact with the disgraced singer.
‘We’re sickened,” said a spokesman from the NSPCC at the time. “It’s utterly bewildering that he could carry on grooming. It shows contempt for children he abused, and raises serious questions about supervision.”
At the time, it was said that prison officials in Wakefield reportedly found “nothing untoward” in their exchanges via letters and emails. A spokesman from Lincolnshire police meanwhile added: “We will always take action to safeguard vulnerable adults and children.”