British media reported on Saturday that Ian Watkins, the disgraced ex-frontman of the Welsh rock band Lostprophets who had been serving a 35-year prison sentence for child sex offenses, was fatally attacked by a fellow inmate. Watkins, 48, was incarcerated at Wakefield Prison in northern England.
"At 9:39 a.m. this morning (Saturday), police received a call from staff at HMP Wakefield alerting them to an assault on a prisoner," West Yorkshire Police stated in a press release. "Emergency responders rushed to the scene, but the man was pronounced dead shortly thereafter." The police statement did not explicitly identify Watkins.
Authorities did not immediately respond to a Reuters inquiry seeking further comment.
Watkins was convicted in 2013 after entering guilty pleas to 13 charges. He admitted to two counts of attempted rape, sexually assaulting a child under the age of 13, aiding and abetting the sexual assault of a child under 13, conspiring to rape a child under 13, and conspiring to sexually assault another child under 13. Additionally, he pleaded guilty to six counts of creating and possessing indecent images of children, as well as one count of possessing extreme pornographic material.
