Ian Watkins: Inmate charged with murdering LostProphets singer in prison due in court
An inmate charged with murdering disgraced Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins is due in court.
Rashid Gedel, aged 25, referred to as Rico Gedel during the proceedings at Leeds Crown Court, was due to appear for a case management hearing via a prison videolink on Monday, February 2.
But Judge Guy Kearl KC was told by defence bassister Peter Moulson KC that Gedel had wanted to appear in court in person rather than over a link.
Gedel and another inmate, Samuel Dodsworth, 43, are both charged with murdering Watkins at HMP Wakefield on October 11, 2025.
The 48-year-old paedophile singer, serving a 29-year sentence for child sex offences, was pronounced dead at the maximum security jail.
Dodsworth pleaded not guilty at a previous hearing and a trial date of May 2 has been set.
Gedel will be brought from prison to formally enter his plea on February 9.
Watkins was jailed in December 2013 after admitting a string of crimes - including the attempted rape of a fan's baby.
The disgraced singer was arrested following the execution of a drugs warrant at his Pontypridd home in Wales on September 21, 2012, when a large number of computers, mobile phones and storage devices were seized.
Analysis of the equipment uncovered Watkins' depraved behaviour.
Watkins and the Doncaster baby's mother, named only as Woman A, abused the child together.
Woman A was sentenced to 14 years' custody over the abuse.
Another of Watkins' accomplices, Woman B, the mother of another child the twisted paedophile abused, was jailed for 17 years.
In 2017, a report from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) concluded that South Yorkshire Police officers in Doncaster failed to take seriously complaints made by Watkins' former girlfriend, Joanne Mjadzelics, who lived in Doncaster at the time and reported her concerns about the singer.
The report concluded that the force’s failings “put a child at risk of further abuse of further abuse for several months”.