(WGHP) — A musician who has spent years behind bars for child pornography and sex crimes has been killed, the BBC and Sky News are reporting.
Ian Watkins, the former lead singer of the Welsh rock band Lostprophets, was reportedly killed in prison at age 48 after being attacked with a knife, the BBC reported on Saturday.
He was 12 years into a 29-year sentence for a spate of sex crimes, including the attempted rape of a baby.
He had been attacked in prison previously in 2023. The investigation into this deadly attack is ongoing, according to the BBC, but a report two weeks ago noted violence at Wakefield Prison, where he was incarcerated, had increased "markedly."
Watkins rose to fame alongside Lostprophets, which was formed in the late 1990s in Wales, and had several hits in the UK and one hit in the US, the song "Last Train Home," released in 2004. They released a total of five albums before Watkins was arrested and charged in 2012.
The band disbanded and formed a new group with "Thursday" singer Geoff Rickly.
The mothers of the children Watkins abused were also sentenced to 14 and 17 years in prison as a result of the case.