The rock singer dramatically changed his pleas on the day he was set to stand trial at Cardiff Crown Court.

Ian Watkins, singer with Welsh rock group Lostprophets [custody picture below right], has pleaded guilty to a range of child sex charges, including two counts of attempting to rape a baby.

The 36-year-old, who had previously denied all charges, admitted conspiring to rape another child and sexually assaulting a child aged under 13. He also admitted taking and possessing indecent photographs of children and possessing extreme pornography depicting sex with animals.

His two female co-defendants also admitted a string of sex abuse charges against their own children, including aiding and abetting rape and taking and distributing indecent photographs of children.

According to ITV reporter Rupert Evelyn, who is tweeting from the trial, Watkins had sent a message to the co-defendant talking of wanting to “cross the line”, to which the mother replied, “a summer of incest and porn” with his reply, “hell yes baby”. Evelyn also reports that the child victims were plied with crack cocaine and methamphetamine.

A government security organisation cracked Watkins’ password to find footage of sex abuse on his hard drive, while further material was found in cloud storage belonging to the singer.

Prosecutor Chris Clee QC this afternoon described Watkins as a “determined and committed paedophile” who had not only abused children but “recorded and kept episodes of this abuse which were recovered by the police.” The singer will be sentenced on December 18.

WalesOnline has been reporting live from Cardiff Crown Court, where further details of the case continue to emerge. According to Evelyn, “police believe that Watkins may have abused others and therefore this investigation is not over”, while a senior investigating offer refers to the trial’s evidence as the “most shocking, harrowing child abuse evidence I have ever seen.”