Paedophile singer Ian Watkins sent fiancee chilling final love letter the day before his prison murder
Paedophile singer Ian Watkins sent his secret fiancee a love letter the day before he was brutally murdered in prison, telling her, “They won’t keep us apart forever.”
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The disgraced Lostprophets frontman, 48, was killed after his throat was slashed by another inmate inside HMP Wakefield last week.
Watkins was serving a 35-year sentence for a catalogue of child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a baby
Behind bars, Watkins developed a disturbing, manipulative relationship with a 30-year-old obsessed fan named Ellie, who he proposed to after convincing her to buy her own engagement ring.
It has been revealed that in a birthday card that arrived at her home on the very day he was killed, Watkins wrote: “Duchess. Didn’t think I’d forget your birthday did you. They won’t keep us apart forever. Your Duke. IW.”
Ellie, whose name was changed to anonymity, kept dozens of handwritten letters from the jailed singer, as revealed by The Sun.
In what would become one of his final messages, Watkins appeared to predict his fate. “I hate the weekends in here cause we are unlocked all day so you never know what’s going to happen,” he wrote.
In one letter, Watkins described in detail a previous attempt on his life in 2023, when he was stabbed and held hostage for six hours by fellow inmates.
He wrote: "The whole incident with me was crazy. Stabbed in the neck eight times. Almost died, was touch and go. I had bleeds on the brain and have permanent spinal nerve damage. The weapon went in so far it hit my spine in my neck and scrambled all the nerves."
But even while recalling the near-death experience, Watkins couldn’t resist bragging: "Thankfully I’m still really hot. Someone on the wing said I look like Grindelwald the other day from Fantastic Beasts. So whenever I get compared to Johnny Depp it’s always a good day, haha."
Ellie said of the birthday card: “That was the very last contact I had with him and probably the last message he ever sent. I was so excited to get it, but a day later he was dead. I had no idea. I just fell on the floor. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t speak. I was inconsolable.”
The 30-year-old from Halifax said she spoke to Watkins almost every day on the phone.
The pair first met backstage at a Lostprophets gig in January 2010, when she was just 15.
Ellie had been a devoted fan since childhood, but after Watkins’ 2012 arrest on child sex charges, she said she couldn’t listen to his music or look at his pictures.
Despite his crimes, she reconnected with him a year later after a fellow fan passed on his prison number.
Ellie said she knew of “four or five women who were also visiting him behind bars” and “hundreds more who were sending him letters.”
Like them, she admitted she became desperate for his attention and was determined to become his favourite.
West Yorkshire police said that two men aged 43 and 25 had been charged with Watkin's murder.
Police said: "Detectives have charged two men with murder after the death of a prisoner at HMP Wakefield on Saturday.
"Ian Watkins aged 48 was pronounced dead after being seriously assaulted at HMP Wakefield on Saturday morning (11 October).
"Rashid Gedel aged 25 who self defines as any other black background and Samuel Dodsworth aged 43 who self defines as white British both of HMP Wakefield have both been charged with murder."
Watkins was being held on a wing housing general population rather than holding just sex offenders.
A source told The Sun: "Watkins was known for paying for his security in jail. He was getting rinsed.
“Someone would threaten him and he’d pay up.
The killer had approached him and said 'Give me money and I’ll protect you.'
"No one's clear why he then turned on him — and slit his neck.
"Watkins was getting no special protection on a wing with killers, gangsters and drug dealers.
"It put him in extreme danger and it was as if he knew his time was up."
A prison spokesperson previously confirmed they would make no further comment during the police investigation.
Watkins was jailed in 2013 for a series of child sex crimes, including the attempted rape of a fan’s baby daughter.
He admitted two attempted rapes, sexually assaulting a child under 13, aiding and abetting the sexual assault of a child under 13, conspiring to rape a child under 13 and conspiring to sexually assault another child under 13.
He had also pleaded guilty to six counts of taking and possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing extreme pornographic images.
He had previously been stabbed at the prison in 2023, with reports at the time saying he had been taken hostage by three other inmates.