One of the inmates arrested after former Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins was killed in prison on October 11 has pleaded not guilty. Watkins was serving a 29-year prison sentence with an additional 6-year probation after being charged with multiple sex offenses in 2013. The convicted pedophile was stabbed in Wakefield Prison and was 48 years old.
Two inmates were taken into custody after the incident, and the prison was locked down. Rashid “Rico” Gedel (25) and Samuel Dodsworth (43) were charged with Watkins’ murder two days later. In a recent coroner’s report, it was revealed that Watkins died after being stabbed in the neck. He bled out and was dead when emergency personnel arrived.
On November 12, Dodsworth appeared at Leeds Crown Court to enter his plea. According to a report from BBC News, he appeared via video from Wakefield Prison and pleaded not guilty. Gedel was also scheduled to appear via video, but he refused to leave his cell. He claimed he wanted to appear in person. No pleas were entered on his behalf.
Inmate Pleads Not Guilty to Prison Murder of Lostprophets Frontman and Sex Offender Ian Watkins
While entering his plea, Dodsworth also denied being in possession of a makeshift knife on the same day Ian Watkins was murdered. Dodsworth’s trial date is May 5, 2026, with a case management hearing scheduled for February 2, according to BBC News.
In 2008, Ian Watkins’ then-girlfriend Joanne Mjadzelics attempted to report him to police after he shared sexually explicit fantasies and images of minors with her. She reported him several different times after initially being dismissed by police; another time in 2010, and again in 2012. It took four years before the police caught Watkins, but his arrest came from an unrelated drug bust.
Police searched his home in 2012 for drug possession, but found child pornography instead. Watkins’ true nature came to light then. He pleaded guilty to 13 sex offenses in 2013, including attempted rape of a baby, conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault on a child, and several more heinous acts.
Inmates attacked Watkins one other time in prison before his murder. In 2023, he was held hostage, beaten, and stabbed over a drug debt. He sustained “life-threatening” injuries from the attack after allegedly being stabbed with a sharpened toilet brush, as reported in The Mirror.
Photo by Chiaki Nozu/WireImage
The post Inmate Arrested in Ian Watkins Prison Murder Pleads Not Guilty appeared first on VICE.
