Two inmates, 25 and 43, are charged with murdering paedophile Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins

Two inmates have been charged with murdering pedophile Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins in a high-security prison.

Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, appeared at Leeds Magistrates’ Court this morning.

Watkins, 48, had been behind bars for almost three decades for a series of horrific child sex crimes, including the attempted rape of a fan’s young daughter.

He was pronounced dead after emergency services were called to HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire on Saturday morning.

Gedel and Dodsworth appeared expressionless in the dock at Leeds Magistrates’ Court today, where each spoke only to confirm their names and dates of birth.

No plea was entered and no bail application was made. The pair have been detained and will appear before Leeds Crown Court tomorrow.

More details have since emerged about Watkins’ time behind bars, including reports that the singer used other inmates as paid protection.

Watkins is said to have had his throat slit after the prisoners were released from their cells.

He is believed to have been living in a ‘general’ wing with some of Wakefield’s most dangerous inmates, as opposed to the one reserved for sex offenders.

One source was quoted as saying ‘it was as if it was’. [Watkins] He knew his time was up.

Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, have been charged with murder, West Yorkshire Police said this morning.

Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins was murdered at HMP Wakefield on Saturday, where he was jailed for 29 years for child sex offences.

HMP Wakefield is said to be concerned about the ‘mock’ attack and carried out weapons searches.

A prison van was seen leaving the category A facility on Saturday night.

One of Watkins’ ex-girlfriends told the Daily Mail she was surprised it “took so long” to kill the debauched frontman.

Joanne Mjadzelics, who helped expose the sick pedophile, now suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and self-harms after being exposed to Watkins’ disgusting behavior.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Mail, he said: ‘It’s a huge shock, but I’m surprised it didn’t happen sooner. I was always waiting for this phone call.

‘From the first day he entered prison, he was walking around with a target on his back. I was always afraid of him going out and following me or something, so this was a relief.

‘I wanted him dead for a long time, after everything he did. I’m relieved, I feel like a burden has been lifted off my shoulders.

‘This is the second time someone has slit their throat. I expected this to happen sooner. ‘He was there for almost 13 years.’

Ms Mjadzelics added: ‘The families of those poor victims will rejoice today. He’s gone and they’ll be as relieved as I am. Maybe now a new era of my life will begin.

‘The man I loved never existed. He manipulated me and that man who died in prison today was a stranger to me. ‘I never liked him, he just took on a character.’

Two men, aged 25 and 43, were arrested on suspicion of Watkins’ murder on Saturday.

Dodsworth (pictured) was serving his sentence at HMP Wakefield

The Welsh musician was sentenced to 29 years in prison for a series of child sex crimes, including the attempted rape of a fan’s young daughter.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: ‘Detectives have launched a murder investigation following the death of a man at HMP Wakefield.

‘Officers were called at 9.39am this morning to reports of a serious assault on a prisoner by prison staff.

‘A 48-year-old man was found seriously injured. Despite medical intervention, it was determined that the person died at the scene.

‘Two men, aged 25 and 43, were arrested on suspicion of murder and are currently in police custody.

‘Detectives from the Homicide Squad and Major Investigation Team are investigating and investigations are ongoing.’

In 2013, Watkins was sentenced to consecutive terms of 14 years and 15 years in prison for having sexual intercourse with a child and attempting to rape an 11-month-old baby.

He was also convicted of 11 other offenses at Cardiff Crown Court, and these sentences were in addition to his 29-year sentence.

The two defendants, known as Mother A and Mother B, who were the parents of the children he attacked, were also sentenced to 14 and 17 years in prison, respectively.

While the immoral singer tried to rape a fan’s daughter, he encouraged another to molest his own child in the camera chat.

During the hearing, it was heard that a woman offered her ‘summer child porn’, to which she replied: ‘Yes, baby’.

Christine Laing QC, representing Woman B, told the court Watkins told her client: ‘You and your daughter belong to me now.’

It is also understood that the jailed sex offender is ‘very tech-savvy’ and that his collection of child abuse images and photographs amounts to 27 terabytes of data.

The scale of the collection dwarfed that of South Wales Police’s own data warehouse, which was five times larger than that of the force, which at the time had 2,862 police officers and 1,631 support staff.

One terabyte can store up to 472 hours of broadcast quality images or approximately 150 hours of HD video.

Experts from GCHQ, the UK government’s intelligence centre, were brought in to decrypt encrypted files on his computer.

The pedophile denied the allegations against him before changing his plea to guilty at the last second.

In mitigation, his defense argued that his use of crack cocaine and crystal meth meant he could not remember the ‘productive abuse’.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Doyle said: ‘Clearly this was a man using encryption tools. He was a man who did his best to hide what he was hiding.

‘He went to great lengths to hide his mistake.

‘It takes a while to figure this out and uncover it, but we figured it out, we did it. That’s why we’re here today.’

Watkins pleaded guilty to 13 sexual offences, including attempted rape of an infant and attempted sexual assault of a child under 13.

During sentencing, Judge Royce told the two women and Watkins: ‘Those who have been in these courts over the years have seen many horrific cases here.

‘This case breaks new ground. ‘Every decent human being will experience shock, disgust and disbelief.’

The judge added that Watkins showed “no remorse” and had a “corrupting influence”, before adding that the singer posed a significant risk to the wider public, particularly women with young children.

The pedophile founded Lostprophets in the Welsh town of Pontypridd in 1997, and the band went on to release five albums.

In their statement, the group stated that they would part ways with Watkins one month before his sentence, and said that they were not aware of Watkins’ crime.

After the sex offender’s crimes were exposed, the band’s music was pulled from HMV shelves and Rhondda Cynon Taf council removed paving stones engraved with Lostprophets lyrics.

In 2019, Watkins was sentenced to an additional 10 months in prison after it was revealed that he was carrying a mobile phone.

Watkins claimed two inmates forced him to hold the phone so they could contact women who sent him fan mail and use them as an ‘income stream’.

The defendant refused to name the men in his statement but said: ‘You don’t want to mess with them.’

He argued that he could not name them out of fear because he was behind bars with ‘murderers, mass murderers, rapists, pedophiles, serial killers – at their worst’.

Judge Rodney Jameson KC said Watkins had been threatened with the phone, which was in his possession for five days, because he refused to accept it.

During the five-day trial at Leeds Crown Court, the jury heard that Watkins was strip-searched in prison in March 2018 and then removed a small phone from his body after he became worried he would not be able to see his mother, who was visiting from Wales.

In 2014, Watkins was told he could not appeal his 29-year prison sentence.

Watkins’ attorneys argued in a last-minute guilty plea that his prison sentence should be shortened because he saved the jury from viewing homemade child pornography.

But the Court of Appeal in Cardiff rejected his application for leave to appeal.

Chief judge Lord Justice Pitchford said: ‘These were crimes against young children of such shocking depravity that a very long prison sentence was called for.

‘It has not been proven that a total prison sentence of 29 years with extended license period is clearly excessive. The application in his case was therefore rejected.’

Disturbing videos to be shown at his trial included an attempted rape of a baby and a webcam chat in which he instructed a crazed fan to molest his child.

The pedophile musician was previously hospitalized after being attacked in a separate incident in August 2023.

His injuries were not believed to be life-threatening, police said at the time.

During this incident, three other inmates had grabbed him during the attack, causing the musician to suffer a neck injury.

The attack ended when a riot squad descended on the cell with stun grenades in an attempt to free the sex offender.

Watkins later received life-saving medical treatment at Leeds General Infirmary.