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True Crime
Rock Star Pedophile Ian Watkins Became a Drug-Fueled Sex Pest
Lostprophets frontman engaged in depraved sex acts, enlisting young mothers to join him in abusing their own children
44-year-old Ian Watkins was born and raised in Wales. The stepson of a Baptist minister and a talented musician, the exceptional student seemed to be headed toward a promising future. After playing in a band formed with a friend when he was only 14-years-old, he went on to complete high school and college before co-founding Lostprophets, a band that went on to sell over 3.5 million albums and tour all over Europe and North America.
At first, Watkins kept a level head about his success, refusing to drink or do drugs and focusing his energy on furthering the band’s success. That seemed to change in about 2007 or 2008 when he spiraled into a perverse obsession with online pornography of the worst kind. He was partial to images and videos depicting abuse and deviant acts. It was also about this time that he began seeking out female fans who had young children he could groom and abuse.
Though police had already begun receiving reports during this time, they didn’t take action against him until 2012 when they began actively investigating his crimes and finally took him into custody. The following year, 2013, Watkins admitted to thirteen offenses that included conspiring to rape a child; three counts of sexual assault involving children; seven involving taking, making, or possessing indecent images of children; and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal.
While there were indications that Watkins had committed rape, the prosecution chose to accept his pleading guilty to the lesser sexual assault charges. Though he was charged and convicted of just a little more than a dozen crimes, it is believed that he committed many more based on the images and videos found on his computer and phone.
Four years before his arrest, police had been notified about Watkins’ sexual assaults against children. In December 2008, ex-girlfriend, Joanne Mjadzelics, had called social workers in Pontypridd to report that Watkins was molesting children. Her allegations were…
