Who are the two men charged with murdering paedophile rock star Ian Watkins?
Ian Watkins was murdered last October after being stabbed in the neck by fellow inmates at HMP Wakefield
The two men accused of murdering paedophile Ian Watkins last year are preparing to go on trial - but who are they?
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Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, are charged with murdering the former Lostprophets frontman at HMP Wakefield, West Yorkshire, in October 2025.
Drug dealer Gedel was already behind bars for the murder of aspiring lawyer, Sven Badzak, in 2021 in a case of mistaken identity.
The 22-year-old was ambushed and stabbed to death in Kilburn on his way back from Waitrose by a gang.
Gedel was sentenced to a minimum of 27 years for the killing.
Dodsworth was jailed for the rape of a woman in Derby who he snatched off the street,
Dodsworth threatened the woman with a sharp can opener and forced her back to his flat.
After raping her five times, he fell asleep, allowing the woman to escape. He was handed a 24-year-sentence for kidnap, false imprisonment and five counts of rape.
The pair now face trial for the murder of the 48-year-old singer who was killed while carrying out a lengthy sentence for child sex offences.
Read more: Paedophile rock star Ian Watkins died from stab wound to the neck, inquest hears
Watkins died at the maximum-security prison known as ‘Monster Mansion’, after being stabbed in the neck, the opening inquest heard.
He is said to have been ambushed by fellow inmates when they were allowed out of their cells at 9am, and was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics.
He previously survived a knife attack after being taken hostage by inmates in August 2023.
Watkins was imprisoned in December 2013, facing a further six years on licence, after pleading guilty to a string of charges, including the attempted rape of a fan’s baby.
Following a drugs raid of his home in Pontypridd, Wales, in September 2012, officers uncovered a large volume of computers, mobile phones and storage devices, resulting in his arrest.
Watkins admitted to the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13 but pleaded not guilty to rape.
He also admitted conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, making or possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal.
The fan who allowed Watkins to sexually abuse her baby was handed a 17-year sentence in 2013.
The judge presiding over the case said the woman did not regard her child as a “human being”.
Mr Justice Royce said the case “plunged into new depths of depravity”, the Daily Mail reported.
