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Convicted pedophile and ex lost Prophets frontman Ian Watkins Used to be Killed inside Category A prison12 years after he was first imprisoned.
The disgraced rock singer was jailed for 29 years with an additional six years on license for a string of child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a fan’s child.
His conviction stunned the public and the music industry. However, it later emerged that the 48-year-old man had been reported to the police and local authorities several times, but was allowed to move around freely due to failures in the investigation.
On Saturday, he was fatally attacked with a knife inside Category A HMP Wakefield, with two men arrested on suspicion of murder, making him one of the most high-profile prisoners to die behind bars.
Speaking after learning of his death, his former girlfriend said she was “relieved” to hear the news, after helping send him behind bars for more than a decade.
What opportunities were missed to stop Watkins?
Before his arrest, Wakins was best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band Lostprophets, who made their debut in 1997 and sold millions of albums between 2000 and 2010.
Watkins’ ex-girlfriend, Joan Majadzelix, first reported him to authorities in December 2008 and was interviewed in March 2009. She told officers that she had a message on her mobile phone from Watkins regarding his desire to sexually abuse children.
However, it later emerged that the phone was not investigated “on the grounds that its report was malicious”.
It was later revealed that between 2008 and 2012, South Wales Police failed to take adequate action Based on eight reports from six people and three intelligence logs about the singer’s intentions.
Missed opportunities include the failure of police to meet with an alleged victim and her parents following Ms Mazzelix’s complaint in 2008.
Despite a 2010 Crimestoppers report, and two witness reports that year and in 2012, corroborating Ms Mazzelix’s account, “progress has not been made”.
No action was taken in 2011 on Ms Mazzelix’s email complaint to the ACPO inbox that her report was not properly investigated.
Between March and May 2012, Ms Mazzelix was reported to South Yorkshire Police for child sex offenses on five occasions.
On three occasions, she took a laptop to a police station in Doncaster and said it contained indecent images of a child. An IPCC report found that it was not seen by specialist child protection investigators, and that during another visit, they were told by officers that the alleged victim was an adult female.
The laptop was later destroyed before Watkins’ arrest.
The report also found that a request from South Wales Police to South Yorkshire for assistance with Ms Mazzelix’s allegations was handed over to a safer neighborhoods team without any specific training, rather than child sexual abuse investigators.
The IPCC also investigated Bedfordshire Police, with two detectives accused of misconduct after failing to record the decision-making process and pursue all lines of investigation.
The force received a complaint in October 2012 from Ms Mazzelix that a mother was allowing Watkins to abuse her 18-month-old child.
The electronic devices of the mother, known as Miss A, were not seized and all lines of inquiry were not pursued.
While the police watchdog was satisfied that Bedfordshire Police responded quickly to the allegation, they found that both detectives should have done more.
Ms Mazzelix was cleared of child sexual abuse image offenses in 2015. She claimed that she had encouraged the singer to send the photographs in order to expose his criminality.
She said the IPCC report ultimately vindicated her and “admitted that from the beginning I was telling the truth and trying to bring a serious criminal sexual predator to justice”.
Assistant Chief Constable Jeremy Vaughan of South Wales Police said at the time: “[The] The report highlights a number of failings in how information about Watkins was investigated between 2008 and 2012 which the force fully acknowledges and regrets.
“We are truly sorry for how South Wales Police failed to listen to and properly investigate reports of Watkins’s abusive behaviour.”
When was he arrested?
Watkins was not caught and his crimes uncovered until September 2012, when police executed a drugs warrant at his home in Pontypridd, Wales.
A large number of computers, mobile phones and storage devices were seized, with analysis of the devices revealing his corrupt behaviour.
In December 2013 he was jailed for 29 years and six years on license after admitting a number of sexual offences.
The crimes to which he pleaded guilty included the attempted rape of an 11-month-old girl and a disgusting sex abuse video filmed in a London hotel room.
While awaiting sentencing, prison officials recorded him saying during a telephone call to a friend that the whole thing was “megaloose.”
Described as a “committed and determined” pedophile, the court heard he had used his power to exploit young fans and persuaded two women to help satisfy what the judge described as his “insatiable lust”.
Mr Justice Royce said: “I am satisfied that you are a man of deep corrupt influence, you are highly manipulative, you are a sexual predator, you are dangerous.”