Rico Gedel, 25, is on trial for the murder of Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins, who was stabbed in his cell at HMP Wakefield – Gedel admitted he said ‘this is what paedophiles deserve’
A prisoner who fatally stabbed Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins claimed he told the singer “this is what paedophiles deserve” before cutting his throat, a court has been told. Watkins was assaulted in his cell at the high-security HMP Wakefield on 11 October last year.
Convicted killer Rico Gedel, 25, informed the court of his disdain for sharing a wing with sex offenders at the prison, and had openly threatened to attack “any number of paedophiles” if he wasn’t relocated. Gedel stated that he had resolved to “stab someone” as a means to be moved from the wing, and selected Watkins, who was in the neighbouring cell, due to “proximity”.
He expressed to the court that he felt he had been “set up” by prison officers aware of his intense loathing for paedophiles, asserting they were “just as much to blame as I am”.
Gedel also alleged that Watkins had directed racial slurs at him the night prior to the deadly assault, after he began verbally taunting him through the cell walls.
He disclosed to Leeds Crown Court jurors his deep-seated hatred for sex offenders, citing family members who had been victims of sexual assault, adding: “The reason I feel so disgusted about sexual assault is …It’s not something you can take away.
“It’s something people live with for the rest of their lives.”
Gedel revealed that upon his transfer to HMP Wakefield, he made it a priority to identify the sex offenders on his wing because “I’m in a prison I generally don’t want to be in surrounded by people I don’t want to be 10ft near”.
He stated that he had only interacted with Watkins three times, including once when they were on the same wing earlier that year, during which he verbally insulted the former singer through his cell door, labelling him a “dirty paedo and a scumbag”.
He informed the court: “At first he was just a bit coy and cocky, like ‘ah, you don’t know who I am’,” but “eventually turned racist”.
He claimed Watkins called him a “s*** stain” and told him: “Get away from my door, this is a n****** free zone’.”
Gedel said he was relocated back onto the same wing as Watkins the night before the fatal attack after he attacked three prisoners on another wing, alleging one of them “was selling baby photos and boasting about him being a paedophile”.
He mentioned that the night he was moved, he overheard the inmate next door requesting a prison officer to print off a photo of a female and discovered it was Watkins.
“As soon as I knew it was Watkins I started giving him verbal and he started giving verbal back,” Gedel said.
He told the court he labelled Watkins a scumbag and a paedophile, and Watkins retorted with “a lot of racial slurs”.
Gedel stated that the following morning he was handed the makeshift knife used in the attack by Samuel Dodsworth after telling him that he needed a weapon.
“There was no other option than to cause violence to get off the wing,” Gedel said.
“It was going through my head, who would be the best target. I was feeling like no-one would listen to me.”
He confessed that he began to tell himself “get on with it, just do it, just stab someone” and that Watkins “came into my thought process,” adding that it was “probably just proximity”.
Gedel revealed: “I went into his cell… I stabbed him in his neck. I slashed him, it was not a poking motion, it was a slicing motion.
“Blood immediately didn’t come out. Then I slashed his ear, but I didn’t think I got his ear, I thought I got his cheek.
“Then I slashed him again. That’s when he started bleeding.”
He stated that he told Watkins: “This is what paedophiles deserve.”
When asked if Watkins responded, Gedel said: “No, I don’t think he could speak. It was like a mumbled scream.”
He admitted to the court that he felt “sad about having to go to those extremes,” and pondered: “Is this what it takes to get off the wing?”
When questioned by his barrister Peter Moulson KC if he intended to kill Watkins, Gedel replied: “Some part of me did, yes.”
He affirmed: “Yes,” when asked if some part of him did not.
Gedel told the court: “Sometimes what we are thinking is not what we intend to do.
“Sometimes what your heart wants is not what your brain wants.
“I don’t think much, I’m not a thinker… sometimes my impulse is not what I want.
“My heart was saying ‘he deserves it, he’s a paedophile. Think of your family members, think of his victims’. My brain was saying ‘it’s not the thing to do’.”
Gedel claimed he was set up because “prison officers knew I was a violent person, they knew I was going to commit this act”.
He told jurors: “When I first came to the prison, I said if I don’t get transferred within six months I’m going to commit an act of violence.
“Every prison officer I interacted with I told them my disgust of sex offenders.”
Gedel said that after he attacked the man he claimed was “selling baby photos” he told officers: “I need to get transferred or this is going to continue to happen.”
He added: “I don’t like sex offenders, I hate them, I despise them.
“I’m not here to prove my innocence, I admit to what’s happened, whether that was the intention or not, I take full responsibility for what’s happened.
“But the prison officers are just as much to blame as I am.”
Gedel, who was originally identified by police as Rashid Gedel, and Dodsworth both deny murder and possession of a makeshift knife in prison.
Watkins was sentenced to 29 years in December 2013, with an additional six years on licence, after pleading guilty to a series of sex offences – including the attempted rape of a fan’s baby.
The trial continues.