Former LOSTPROPHETS vocalist Ian Watkins has reportedly died following a brutal assault inside the high-security HMP Wakefield prison earlier today, October 11th, 2025.
According to The Sun, Watkins was attacked shortly after inmates were released from their cells in the morning. The 48-year-old was allegedly stabbed in the neck, with sources describing the scene as “horrific” and claiming his jugular was severed, leading to fatal blood loss before medics could intervene.
“He was targeted by another inmate who shanked him in the neck… there was nothing they could do, and they could not save him,” a source told the publication. “There was blood everywhere and alarms and sirens going off.”
Prison authorities swiftly locked down the facility as emergency services arrived. A spokesperson for West Yorkshire Police confirmed:
“Emergency services attended and the man was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later. Detectives from the Homicide and Major Enquiry Team are investigating.”
HMP Wakefield, often referred to as “Monster Mansion” due to the number of high-profile violent offenders it houses, has now officially confirmed an “incident” but declined further comment pending investigation.
A History of Violence and Controversy Behind Bars
This was not the first time Watkins had been targeted in custody. In 2023, he was stabbed and taken hostage by three inmates during an attack that lasted six hours. He survived that incident with non life-threatening injuries.
Watkins had been serving a 29-year sentence for a long list of child sex crimes that came to light in 2013 after a drug investigation uncovered explicit media on his computer. The investigation revealed indecent images of children as young as two, leading to one of the most publicly reviled criminal convictions in UK music history.
Despite pleading guilty to multiple charges, including attempted rape of a child and conspiracy to abuse infants, Watkins initially claimed he was the victim of a “malicious campaign” and blamed a “crazed fan” for planting material on his devices.
From Chart Success to Public Disgrace
Formed in 1997, LOSTPROPHETS went on to sell 3.5 million records worldwide and scored a No. 1 Modern Rock radio hit with “Last Train Home” in 2004. The band disbanded in 2013 as soon as the extent of Watkins’s crimes became public. The remaining members later regrouped under the name NO DEVOTION, entirely distancing themselves from their former vocalist.
In prison, Watkins continued to spark headlines. In 2019, he was found guilty of possessing a mobile phone he had hidden inside his body, allegedly under threat from other inmates.
Ian Watkins’s fall from frontman of a hugely successful alternative rock act to one of Britain’s most despised prisoners has remained a grim chapter in music history—and today, that chapter has come to a violent end.