Lostprophets Ian Watkins fatally stabbed 3 instances as inmates ‘took regulation into personal fingers’

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Opening the case for the prosecution on Thursday, Tom Storey KC told jurors some prisoners decide to “take the law into their own hands” when confronted with child sex offenders such as disgraced Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins.

Mr Storey said: “There are some criminal offences which are so heinous that they frankly defy belief and these include the more extreme examples of what are often referred to as child sex offences.

“And there are those who perhaps believe that the punishments meted out by our courts upon people who commit such offences do not go far enough.

“But we have not had the death penalty in this country since 1965, and when we did, it was reserved for offences of murder and treason.

“The law of this country therefore remains that the appropriate means of punishing those who commit even the most serious criminal offences is by sentencing them to lengthy terms of imprisonment.

“Nevertheless, because of the particular stigma which attaches to those who commit child sex offences, even when they are sentenced to decades in prison for their crimes, they remain targets for those who take the view that their punishment is not severe enough, that imprisonment is somehow too good for them.

“And on occasion, some people decide simply to take the law into their own hands and to enact their own form of punishment upon such offenders.”

Mr Storey told the jury Watkins suffered three wounds to his head and neck following an attack by one of the defendants, Rico Gedel, with a homemade bladed weapon.

The prosecutor said: “On the morning of October 11 last year, Ian Watkins was attacked in his cell not long after the prison officers had gone through the process of unlocking all the cell doors on his wing to allow the prisoners out for the morning.

“He suffered three incised wounds to his head and neck, one of which cut through his jugular vein and the surrounding muscle tissues.

“He was attacked by the first of the two defendants, Rico Gedel, with a homemade bladed weapon.

“This attack was part of what the prosecution say was clearly a joint offence which also involved the second defendant, Samuel Dodsworth, who was, the prosecution say, aware that the attack was to take place, and who assisted by, at the very least, disposing of the weapon used by Gedel in his attack upon Watkins.”

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