Two men arrested for stabbing Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins

Two men have been arrested on suspicion of the murder of Ian Watkins, the Lostprophets singer and convicted pedophile who was stabbed and killed in prison on Saturday.

The BBC reports that two men, aged 25 and 43, have been arrested in connection with Watkins’ death and a murder investigation is currently underway. The identities of the suspects have not been released by police and authorities have made no further comment pending the investigation.

Watkins was killed on Saturday aged 48 at HMP Wakefield prison in West Yorkshire, England, where the former singer was serving a 29-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to 13 charges, including attempted rape of a fan’s baby and producing child pornography.

Watkins was previously attacked at the prison in August 2023 by three other prisoners, an incident that left him with neck injuries that required hospital treatment. HMP Wakefield, England, is considered one of the country’s most notorious prisons and is nicknamed the “Monster Mansion” because its residents include serial killers, murderers and pedophiles.

As the BBC notes, Watkins’ stabbing death comes just weeks after a chief prisons inspector’s report revealed attacks on HMP Wakefield had “increased significantly”. “Many prisoners told us they felt unsafe, particularly older men convicted of sexual offenses who were increasingly sharing prison with a growing cohort of younger prisoners,” the report said.

In 2019, Watkins was sentenced to an additional 10 months in prison after a cell phone was found in his possession; he claimed that other prisoners forced him to keep the phone. While fighting the accusations, Watkins refrained from revealing which prisoners gave him the phone out of fear, saying he was locked up with “murderers, mass murderers, rapists, pedophiles, serial killers – the worst of the worst.”