Back in December 2013, Ian Watkins, former vocalist of the Welsh band Lostprophets, was sentenced to 29 to 35 years in prison after pleading guilty to a variety of sexual offenses, including attempted rape and sexual assault of a child, three counts of child sexual assault, seven "involving taking, making or possessing indecent images of children," and one count of possession of bestiality pornography. Watkins, 46, has since been serving his sentence at Wakefield Prison in West Yorkshire, England. Last August, he was reportedly hospitalized after three other inmates took him hostage and beat and stabbed him over a six-hour incident until, one publication reports, "specially trained" officers in riot gear rescued him.
Watkins was allegedly attacked and stabbed in a separate incident last year and is now paying other inmates to protect him, according to an inmate interview with the authors of Inside Wakefield Prison: Life Behind Bars in the Monster Mansion.
[The] prisoner revealed to the authors: "He is hated by many, but as [His Majesty's Prison Wakefield] is mixed, i.e. VPs and high-level gangsters, drug importers and organised crime, they just take money off [Watkins] for his safety.
"He has spent thousands on protection. The recent stabbing was a reminder that he needs to pay. He took an amount of spice off a prisoner with a prison value of £150.
"Because it was Watkins, he was told he owed £900. He was high and refused to pay; therefore, he was stabbed in the side using a sharpened toilet brush."
The inmate interviewee also elaborated on the 2019 incident in which Watkins was found guilty of smuggling a cell phone in his anus, invoking an additional ten months on his sentence.
The source said: "He had paid a Liverpool gang member £1,000 to use the phone, and when he got caught with it, he had to pay £5,000. This is fact; I know the guy who lent him the phone. Watkins is on C wing at HMP W.
"His work activity is education. He buys his protection, and his recent stabbing was due to a drugs debt. He is considered vile amongst other offenders (because of his involvement in sexual offences against babies). He pays for protection."
Watkins himself initially claimed the phone belonged to two other inmates who wanted Watkins to exploit his popular correspondence with fans to bring money behind bars. Watkins refused to name these inmates, alleging fear of fatal retribution, saying "their MO is throat cutting."
Inside Wakefield Prison: Life Behind Bars in the Monster Mansion, authored by Jonathan Levi and Emma French, was published last month on O'Mahony's. The book's jacket description mentions Watkins among the prison's most notorious.
