Lostprophets singer pleads guilty to child sex abuses

[Deleted]

This is disgusting.

Ian Watkins, Lostprophets Singer, Pleads Guilty To Attempted Rape Of Baby, Multiple Child Sex Offenses

The lead singer of the rock band Lostprophets has pleaded guilty to multiple child sex offenses, including the attempted rape of a baby.

Ian Watkins pleaded guilty to the "depraved" sex charges in Cardiff Crown Court in Wales on Tuesday, Nov. 26, the BBC reported. He admitted to the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13 years old, "three counts of sexual assault involving children and six involving taking, making or possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal."

Alongside Watkins, two female co-defendants pleaded guilty to various sex offenses against their own children, the South Wales Evening Post reported. He admitted to attempting to rape the 11-month-old baby boy of one of the co-defendants and conspiring to rape the baby girl of the other.

"Ian Watkins was the lead singer of a successful band, The Lostprophets," prosecutor Christopher Clee said, per Wales Online. "He also, by virtue of his plea, accepts he is a determined and committed pedophile. He has engaged in serious sexual offenses against two babies belonging to the female defendants in this case. Not only has he done so but he recorded and kept episodes of this abuse which were recovered by the police."

Clee said drugs played a "significant part in his offending against children," the BBC noted.

"This investigation has uncovered the most shocking and harrowing child abuse evidence I have ever seen," DCI Peter Doyle, with the South Wales Police, told reporters outside the court. "There is no doubt in my mind that Ian Watkins exploited his celebrity status in order to abuse young children."

The 36-year-old singer previously denied the 24 charges against him, according to the U.K.'s Daily Star. His trial was slated to drag out for three weeks. He and the two women faced a total of 32 charges.

Lostprophets formed in 1997 and went on to sell 3.5 million albums over the group's 15-year career. Watkins was charged with the child sex offenses almost a year ago. In October, the group disbanded.

"After nearly a year of coming to terms with our heartache, we finally feel ready to announce publicly what we have thought privately for some time," the band said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press. "We can no longer continue making or performing music as Lostprophets."

Watkins and the two female offenders remain in custody and will be sentenced in December, according to the Daily Mail.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/ian-watkins-lostprophets-guilty-rape_n_4344037.html?utm_hp_ref=mostpopular

[hitseeker.]

That is disturbing and just abhorrent on so many levels. Who the f**k tries to rape a baby?!

[Wavey✨️]

This cannot be the "Last Train Home" LostProphets lead singer right?

[Deleted]

Nov 29, 2013 11:39:54 GMT -5 Wavey✨️ said:

This cannot be the "Last Train Home" LostProphets lead singer right?

It is. They had a few Alternative hits in the US and several UK hits.

[Wavey✨️]

Wow, that's upsetting!

[Jeice]

Oh God and to think I have "Rooftops" from them in my iTunes library. Delete, delete, delete! I certainly don't wish him well in his jail time.

[Deleted]

Lostprophets Frontman Pleads Guilty to Child Sex Offenses: An Ex-Friend Wonders How She Didn't See It Coming

This is Ian Watkins. Until he was arrested almost a year ago on charges related to the sexual abuse of minors, Ian Watkins sang for a band called Lostprophets. The British rockers weren't particularly well-known in the U.S., but they had an enormous fan-base elsewhere; they sold more than 3.5 million albums over the course of their career, selling out stadiums all over the world.

But on December 19th, 2012 -- 13 years and five albums into being one of the most famous rock frontmen in the U.K. -- Ian got arrested, put in prison and has been awaiting trial ever since. On Tuesday, instead of finally starting that trial, Ian instead pleaded guilty to the attempted rape of a one-year-old infant, as well as a string of other truly horrific child sex offenses.

That's right folks: this man tried to rape a baby.

And guess what? I have been friends with him for 17 years.

Of course, we haven't communicated since he's been in prison and I cannot imagine a situation where I would ever talk to him again. Not just because he is a sick, self-entitled, abusive individual. Not just because he exploited his position and used it to abuse a number of vulnerable young women, girls and children. Not just because he has destroyed the careers of his (innocent, hard-working) bandmates, annihilated Lostprophets' musical legacy, and tarnished the good names of everyone involved. And not just because of the unbelievable heartache he has caused his poor family.

No. While each of those individually are good enough reasons to steer clear of Ian Watkins for the rest of my life, the final reason I would never talk to him again is that even thinking about him right now causes me to feel shame. Shame that I never noticed anything different about him. Shame that, even after his arrest, I stayed on the fence, unable to believe he could be a part of such heinous acts. Shame that I cannot, even after hearing all the disgraceful details of this man's seedy side-life, reconcile the guy I was friends with since we were teens with the man currently residing in a South Wales prison. I simply cannot connect the dots.

Over the last 24 hours, I've been hearing that that's how it is for almost all of Ian's (ex-)friends right now. How did the bright, funny, charismatic, talented individual we loved and thought we knew turn into such a terrifying monster? When did it happen? Was he evil all along and just hiding it exceptionally well? Can we place the blame on the drug problem he developed over the last few years? Was it fame that corrupted him? There's not one of us who isn't asking ourselves these questions right now. Sadly, none of us seems to have any answers.

On Tuesday -- after learning of the disgusting, unfeeling, premeditated and predatory behavior this man has been indulging in for years now -- I posed a question on Facebook in a fit of despondency: "How did we miss this?" And a mutual friend of mine and Ian's commented: "Why would anyone have seen it? Who expects the hot, successful, young musician with the famous girlfriends? If I had a kid, 18 months ago I'd have thought nothing of handing them to Ian when I left the room... We were raised to fear the local creepy old man that lived alone -- not the cute guy on the skateboard."

This is an important point. Did Ian get away with this for longer because of his fame and good looks? His career undoubtedly gave him access to victims and allowed him to do this over a longer period of time, but how many other attractive, fun dudes out there are secret pedophiles never get caught because they don't fit our idea of what a pedophile looks like?

Ian has had a string of girlfriends since I've known him. Some were models, some were TV presenters; all were very attractive. None of them lasted a particularly long time, but hey, why settle down with one woman when you have your pick of so many? As his bandmates all married, settled down, and started families, Ian went in the opposite direction and moved into party-town.

While he was an energetic, focused, and hyper-talented force when I first met him, in more recent years, as the partying increased, Ian's spark and energy undoubtedly dimmed. He looked tired, less healthy. His behavior was erratic and began to cause problems within the band. It became common knowledge that he had transformed from a clean-living straight-edger into a full-on drug abuser. And along with the drugs came the next-level sexual escapades -- some of which were publicly exposed in 2010, when explicit photos of him engaged in group sex were leaked. Extremely graphic photos of Ian were also found on a user-contributed porn site.

Still, none of us saw this coming. Because a kinky sex life plus a drug problem does not a child-abuser make. People -- some who have never met Ian, some who have -- have been all over social media since the day he was arrested, claiming they always knew there was something "off" about him; that he was always a creep; that they never trusted him.

But here's the thing: it's easy to say you knew something all along, after the fact. It's so easy to say there was always something strange about Ian when he's already in prison. And it's really damn easy to say you could've predicted this when you never knew or cared about him. It's much easier to live with what has happened if you can convince yourself that you recognized evil the second that you saw it. Because the truth -- that very few of us did see it -- is far more frightening to accept.

According to a number of British news outlets, a lover of Ian's named Joanne Nikita Majic reported him to police four years ago after discovering his unhealthy interest in children. Similarly, sordid accusations of a similar nature appeared on a website called WhosDatedWho.com for three years before he was arrested. I didn't see these until he was already in prison. And when I finally did, the comments looked more like the ramblings of obsessive fans than anything worth taking seriously. Who wants to believe that a long-time friend could do such a thing? Surely these people were just out for fame-by-association.

If Tuesday -- the day that Ian finally admitted in a court of law that he was guilty of pedophilia -- taught me anything, it's that the devil is more adept at hiding in plain sight than I ever imagined. People on the outside will look at this case and wonder how those around Ian could have failed to see what he was up to. Well, rest assured: the people who were around Ian are wondering exactly the same thing. And we're mourning too, because that friend we thought we had doesn't exist anymore -- and we can't be sure that he ever really did.

Of course, nothing that any of us are feeling right now will ever compare to what the true victims in this case -- the children that Ian abused -- have been subjected to. But to caricature Ian as an obvious villain at this point is to do everyone in this case a major disservice, including the teens and young women he took advantage of. If he had been obvious -- if he hadn't been so charming -- he wouldn't have been able to do this at all.

Nothing can be gained from over-simplifying him as a human being. Because pedophiles aren't one-dimensional cartoons, as much as we want them to be. They're brothers, friends, uncles, and cousins. They go to bars, birthday parties, and nice restaurants. They take their mothers to the theater. Their friends are happy to see them. And in this case, they've been adored by hundreds of thousands of people for over a decade.

Geographical issues mean that Ian and I hadn't spent time in person together for two or three years before he was arrested. We did communicate online and keep in touch. It doesn't matter much: everyone who ever cared about Ian, everyone who ever loved Lostprophets, and anyone who's ever been moved by this man's lyrics is reeling right now, trying to come to terms with the horrors he committed right under our noses. To act like these perversions were easy to spot -- to act like Tuesday's outcome was predictable -- merely plays into the factors that made it so easy for him to get away with this for so long in the first place.

blogs.sfweekly.com/shookdown/2013/11/_this_is_ian_watkins.php

[Devil Marlena Nylund]

Wow...

[allow that]

Holy shit. 11 months old? How can one even comprehend that? :(

"Last Train Home" was a favorite of mine back in the day. *deletes right now* Hope to never hear it again.

[allow that]

HMV have announced that they will no longer sell releases by Lostprophets. The high-street retailer has vowed to remove the band's past music from all 140 of their stores after frontman Ian Watkins admitted to 11 sex abuse charges, including the attempted rape of a baby.

Speaking to NME, a spokesperson for HMV confirmed that their staff have been instructed to remove all Lostprophets albums, singles and EPs from their shelves. Although the Welsh group's music is still available via the HMV website, the company apparently plans to end online sales.

HMV's decision reflects the gravity of Watkins' crimes. It is unusual for a major retailer to entirely remove an artist's catalogue, even after a major conviction: HMV continue to sell records by Gary Glitter, Burzum and Charles Manson. At the time of writing, other major retailers, including Amazon and the iTunes Music Store, continue to sell Lostprophets albums.

Lostprophets released five albums, including four top ten hits, before announcing their split last month. Following Watkins' arrest, the remaining five members said they could "no longer continue making or performing music as Lostprophets". "We look forward to the next phase of our lives."

They have not responded to HMV's announcement.

[Rocky]

This is disgusting [x1000000]
Where's spoonabdul?

[Deleted]

There have supposedly been over a million scrobbles of Lostprophets' music deleted from last.fm, meaning last.fm users are deleting them from their libraries in droves.

[allow that]

There's a really creepy photo that I've seen in a few articles where he's holding up a plastic baby doll and winking.

[ZAYN]

That's really sad, I enjoyed a few of their singles and an album or two, but it's greedy of me to be upset about that when there are these young victims :(

[Wavey✨️]

Nov 29, 2013 14:36:37 GMT -5 allow that said:

There's a really creepy photo that I've seen in a few articles where he's holding up a plastic baby doll and winking.

[brucelover]

Absolute utter M.E.S.S.

They will be completely whitewashed from musical history, I feel bad for his bandmates and managers, they will probably never find work again in the industry. No one will want to be associated with this, I think raping babies is pretty much the most disgusting, vile crime anyone can commit. Of course nothing any of his bandmates or whatnot are going through compares to the victims he abused. Just...mess. ugh.

[Deleted]

More people are coming forward now.

Lostprophets Ian Watkins: New Leads After Appeal
An appeal for other potential victims of the "determined and committed" paedophile rocker sparks a flurry of calls to police.

Detectives are pursuing new leads in the Ian Watkins case after the Lostprophets singer admitted to a string of child sex offences.

Police say there has been a flurry of calls triggered by an appeal for unknown victims of the paedophile to come forward.

A spokesman for South Wales Police said they had "received a number of calls as a result of the telephone numbers we published".

The spokesman said he could not say how many calls or what information was given, but he said the leads were being followed up by officers.

Watkins was branded a "determined and committed paedophile" after he pleaded guilty to the offences, including the attempted rape of a baby, on Tuesday.

The 36-year-old, from Pontypridd, South Wales, plotted the abuse with the mothers of two babies in a series of text and internet messages, Cardiff Crown Court was told.

He also admitted sexually touching a one-year-old, encouraging a groupie to abuse her own child during a webcam chat and possessing and making child porn.

Watkins had previously "furiously" denied the charges but his last-minute change of plea came ahead of what was scheduled to be a four-week trial.

Senior South Wales police vowed to carry on investigating Watkins after his admissions in court.

Detective chief inspector Peter Doyle said the force would "work tirelessly to identify any other victims or witnesses and seek the justice they deserve."

He also appealed for anyone who has been "affected" by the Watkins child sex abuse case to make contact.

Watkins will be sentenced with the two unnamed women at Cardiff Crown Court on December 18.

news.sky.com/story/1175627/lostprophets-ian-watkins-new-leads-after-appeal

[Mega248]

Holy shit. Although I haven't listened to the Lostprophets much lately, they were one of my favorite bands during the Start Something era and had the #2 and #3 songs on my year-end chart of 2004. I never took the time to learn much about Ian Watkins' personal life, but I sure as hell didn't think that this was what it consisted of. What a completely sick, messed up guy.

[Myeahhh.]

Here's hoping that he will live in absolute misery for every remaining second of his life.

[allow that]

Having read more on this, I think the absolute sickest part of this story is that a couple of mothers were texting with him about WILLINGLY handing over their own children for him to have his way with. What in the fucking hell of hells?

[Juanca]

I read somewhere that he was also saying that he was HIV + and wanted to share his disease with the minors as a gift to his fans or some sick story like that.
Many such sick people disguise in front of the people.... But when sexual photos of him appeared and ex girlfriends or sexual partners started to talk about his strange and molesting behavior, why no one put more attention? Neither the authorities that received the complaints nor the band mates/friends. I understand the position of the friend who wrote that article admitting how she felt blindsided and I don't like those mr-know-it-all commenting the news on YouTube and saying that it was also obvious to him (as a complete outsider). The truth probably lies somewhere in between those two extremes.
It's unfortunate how this happened a d how many children and families are destroyed because of this. Quite sick and disgusting.
I have Lost Train Home in my laptop now and I saw the video yesterday to remember how the song went and what Ian's face was like. It felt uncomfortable though. I don't think I'll listen to it again in a long time. I will post the video in my Facebook account though. I think it's important to see that a hot person like him could be such a monster.

[Deleted]

Police supposedly had complaints about him sexually abusing children dating back several years, but there wasn't sufficient evidence for them to act (according to them).

Lostprophets Singer Sexually Abused Countless Children, Police Received Complaints Since 2008

Ian Watkins, the former Lostprophets frontman, has plead guilty to attempted rape of an 11 month old baby, sexual assault on a child under 13, three counts of sexual assault on children, six counts of creation or possession of indecent images of children, and one count of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving an animal.

Admission of guilt came at the last minute, right before trial.

Multiple female fans were also involved. The mother of the 11 month old baby plead guilty to helping him carry out the “attempted” rape in a hotel room. The two discussed blowing meth smoke in the baby’s face. The other woman allowed Ian Watkins to conjure up a plot to rape her daughter. Watkins also had a plan to turn babies into sex slaves using hard drugs.

He said he cannot remember much due to being on meth and other drugs.

Friends of Watkins said they called police years ago to tell them he was a pedophile, yet the police did nothing. His ex-girlfriend also reportedly went to the police multiple times, beginning in 2008. She told the Daily Mirror:

“I went straight to South Wales police then and made a complaint but they ignored me and said I needed evidence.”

South Wales police are carrying out an investigation of their response to the complaints.

www.digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2013/11/27/ianwatkins

South Yorkshire Police investigated over Ian Watkins

A watchdog is investigating South Yorkshire Police's handling of complaints about a rock star who has admitted child sex offences.

Ian Watkins, singer of Lostprohpets, is to be sentenced next month for offences including attempted rape of a baby.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating the force's handling of a complaint made against Watkins in 2012.

The IPCC said the inquiry followed a referral from the force in September.

The watchdog has already opened an investigation into whether South Wales Police failed to act quickly enough.

Mothers guilty
The 36-year-old singer from Pontypridd, who was called a "determined and committed paedophile" in court, admitted attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13 but not guilty to rape - a plea the prosecution accepted.

He also admitted three counts of sexual assault involving children and six involving taking, making or possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal.

He will be sentenced on 18 December.

One of the two women charged alongside Watkins, known as Woman A, admitted the attempted rape of a baby after denying rape and two charges of sexual assault, as well as taking and distributing an indecent photograph of a child.

Woman B pleaded guilty to conspiring to rape a child, three sexual assault charges and four charges of taking, possessing or distributing indecent images.

South Yorkshire Police were unavailable for comment.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-25168131

[Libra]

...What the actual fuck.

[jazzyskye10²]

Such a disturbing situation. *smh*

[newpower]

35 years

Lostprophets Singer Ian Watkins Sentenced To 35 Years For Child Sex Offenses

Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins has been sentenced to 35 years in jail for multiple child sex offenses, including the attempted rape of a baby.

Watkins, 36, was sentenced to 35 years on Wednesday, Dec. 18, after pleading guilty to 13 child sex offenses in November, according to the BBC. He will serve 29 years in jail and will remain under police supervision for six years. He will be up for parole after serving two-thirds of the sentence.

Two female co-defendants, who pleaded guilty to various sex offenses against their own children, were also sentenced Wednesday alongside Watkins. They received sentences of 14 years and 17 years, the BBC noted.

www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/12/18/lostprophets-ian-watkins-sentenced_n_4467447.html