Former LOSTPROPHETS frontman Ian Watkins has been found guilty of possessing a mobile phone while in prison. The 42-year-old singer was found with the phone in his cell at HMP Wakefield in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England, where he is serving a sentence for sex offenses. Watkins allegedly used the phone between March 4, 2018 and March 10, 2018 to contact a woman he previously had a relationship with and later hid the phone inside his anus while serving time at the British maximum security prison. Watkins was removed from his cell after officers received intelligence he was illegally storing a phone. The singer told jurors that he hid the phone in prison because he was threatened by two fellow inmates, but he refused to name the men who allegedly ordered him to look after the device. Watkins said his fellow inmates at HMP Wakefield were "murderers and handy," adding, "You would not want to mess with them." He was sentenced to 10 months in prison, to be served on top of his current sentence. Judge Rodney Jameson QC said on Friday: "I am very conscious of the fact you are serving a very long time and you will be well into middle age by the time you are released. "The fact of the matter is if there is not an appreciable penalty for having had a mobile phone in these circumstances then of course you would draw from that the lesson you could have another one and that is not a position I would want to encourage." Watkins's barrister Gareth Burrows said the singer would be eligible to apply for parole in 2029. He said: "The reality is this is a man whose liberty has been and will be restricted for a considerable period of time. "The mobile phone, Your Honour may think, gave him some degree of freedom that he just can't get in any other way." The sentence will delay the time when Watkins could apply for parole by five months, the judge said, according to Sky News. In 2013, Watkins was convicted of 13 child sex offenses. These crimes only came to light following a drug investigation. Six people came forward to make allegations against Watkins before he was finally arrested and jailed for 35 years, the report from the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) found. He must serve at least 29 years in prison. Watkins's disgusted LOSTPROPHETS bandmates called it quits in 2013, just before the frontman pleaded guilty to his crimes. They subsequently formed a new group, named NO DEVOTION.
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
