The last couple of weeks have seen a fast fall for grace for Welsh band Lostprophets’ lead singer Ian Watkins. Since their meteoritic rise on the back of their 2000 album Thefakesoundofprogress the band of have topped charts and won awards, but now, after pleading guilty, Watkins is not facing adoring fans but instead, 35 years in jail for 13 child sex offences.
The charges stem back to incidents that have occurred over the last five years which have allegedly seen Watkins and two unnamed female fans aged in their 20s engage in the sexual abuse of the two women’s children. Police allege that one of these incidents saw the attempted rape of a baby occur.
Originally Watkins denied the charges but later changed his plea to guilty. Welsh Police also announced they are working with law enforcement agencies right around the world to see whether or not Watkins may have committed other crimes while Lostprophets toured the world.
Meanwhile as a band Lostprophets have called it quits on a career that saw them sell 13.5 million albums. The rest of the band members re-affirm they were not aware of what Ian was doing, nor could they imagine that type of behaviour.