Almost a year after the events, a new detail has emerged in the story of the stabbing of Ian Watkins in prison, where the Lostprophets singer has been serving a 29-year sentence since 2013 for paedophilia-related offences, including the attempted rape of a minor, crimes that led to the band's dissolution.
The news came out in the summer of 2023: on August 5, Watkins had been surrounded by a group of inmates in Wakefield prison, taken hostage and stabbed repeatedly before being freed by prison guards and admitted to hospital, with his life not in danger.
In a book dedicated to that “monstrous” prison entitled Inside Wakefield Prison: Life Behind the Bars in the Monster MansionJonathan Levi and Emma French tell what happened, as reported by Mirror: the singer was stabbed to punish him because he was convicted of paedophilia, but for a drug debt of just over 1000 euros.
The former singer of the group had actually stolen drugs worth 180 euros from another inmate, but being a former rock star he was asked to return 1000. When he failed to do so, he was stabbed using a sharp toilet brush.
Pedophilia could still play a role. According to a prisoner interviewed for the book, Watkins is hated by many and has given thousands of euros to the “bosses” (the prison contains “high-level gangsters, drug traffickers, members of organized crime”) to seek protection because of the crimes for which he was convicted.
In 2019, Watkins hid a small mobile phone in his anus, but was discovered. “For it,” says one inmate, “he paid 1,000 euros, after another 5,000 was confiscated.”