Disgraced Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins has been given a 35-year sentence at Cardiff Crown Court.
As Wales Today report, judge Mr Justice Royce handed down the ruling this afternoon. Watkins will serve 29 years in prison, with an additional extended licence period of six years taking his full sentence up to 35 years. He will only be eligible for parole two-thirds of the way into his sentence.
The judge told Watkins and the two women standing trial with him that their case “plumbs new depths of depravity”. He also stated that Watkins posed a “significant risk” to children and young women in the future, and took “evident delight” in abusing his victims.
Despite initially pleading not guilty, the rock singer dramatically changed his plea on November 26 – the day he was set to stand trial at Cardiff Crown Court. Watkins admitted to a number of child sex charges, including two counts of attempting to rape an 11-month-old baby, conspiring to rape another child, sexually assaulting a child aged under 13, and taking indecent photographs of children. The court heard today that Watkins has been convicted for holding 90 images of children, a majority of which fell under the two highest tiers of severity. He also had 22 graphic images of bestiality.
The court also heard that Watkins claims to have no recollection of many of his offences on account of his drug use. According to his defence, Watkins has been on 15-minute suicide watch since the start of the case. Watkins’ counsel also maintain that his behaviour was the consequence of persistent and aggressive sexual attention from fans throughout his career.
Watkins’ two female co-defendants were also sentenced after pleading guilty to a string of sex abuse charges against their own children, including aiding and abetting rape and taking and distributing indecent photographs of children. They were sentenced to 14 years and 17 years respectively.
Before sentencing, the court was told that Watkins was planning to make a statement today, claiming his guilty plea was “mega lolz”. According to the judge, Watkins outlined his intended statement during a phone call to a female friend from prison on November 27, with the singer claiming he would say: “I’m going to put a statement on the 18th now just to say it was mega lols, I don’t know what everyone is getting so freaked out about.” When asked in a subsequent call the next day if he would go through with the plan, he said “No, it’s just lols now.” The court also heard that Watkins said the following:
“I’m not a paedophile, I’m not. You know I plead (sic) guilty just to avoid a trial, not realising ‘Hang on, that makes me look a bit guilty’ but I would never harm anybody.”
This morning has also brought news that the Independent Police Complaints Commissions (IPCC) is probing the South Wales, South Yorkshire and Bedfordshire Police service over their handling of the case. A full IPCC statement confirms that one particular officer is being investigated in particular. A key extract reads as follows:
The IPCC is considering reports made to South Wales Police dating back to October 2008 and whether the enquiries conducted from this date onwards were appropriate under the circumstances. At this stage, the IPCC is aware of a number of reports made to the force from either members of the public, Crimestoppers or other police forces prior to Mr Watkins’ arrest in late 2012. A number of these reports originated from the same complainant.
At this stage, a significant part of the investigation is focused on the actions of one officer, a detective sergeant, who is also being investigated in a separate case where it is alleged he failed to act on an allegation that a 15 year old girl had been raped. The officer has been served with gross misconduct notices advising him that his conduct is subject to investigation.
The investigation follows allegations that police were warned about Watkins’ behaviour up to five years ago, but elected not to investigate.
