Ian Watkins Died From Neck Incision; Two Charged

Ian Watkins, 48, the former Lostprophets frontman serving a 29-year sentence for child sexual offences, died after an incision wound to the neck at HMP Wakefield on October 11, an inquest opening heard. West Yorkshire coroner Oliver Longstaff said a provisional post‑mortem found the cause of death to be an incision wound, described the death as 'unnatural' and in state detention, and adjourned the inquest pending the criminal process. Two inmates, Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, have been charged with his murder, while two other men, aged 23 and 39, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder and returned to prison on bail as inquiries continue. Watkins was pronounced dead by an attending doctor and formally identified by a prison officer at the scene; the court heard he had previously been attacked in Wakefield in 2023. Watkins was originally jailed in 2013 after pleading guilty to 13 child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a baby, and a provisional trial date has been set for May 5, with any resumption of the inquest to depend on the outcome of the criminal proceedings.