Ian Watkins: Jailed Lostprophets frontman ‘still receives hundreds of pages of mail from women’, court hears

Disgraced former musician is on trial accused of possessing mobile phone at HMP Wakefield

Jailed Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins “still receives hundreds of pages of mail from women”, a court heard.

The disgraced former musician, who was convicted of sexual offences in 2013, is currently on trial accused of possessing a mobile phone at HMP Wakefield, in West Yorkshire.

On Tuesday, Watkins’ barrister Gareth Burrows asked prison governor Tom Wheatley: “It’s right to say that he’s received a lot of mail, and continues to do so, from females?”

Mr Wheatley said he was not aware of the quantity but when asked whether it was “hundreds and hundreds of pages of letters” he said: “That would sound reasonable.”

The prison governor said he could not confirm Mr Burrows’ contention that the correspondents were “almost exclusively women”.

A jury at Leeds Crown Court heard how Watkins was strip-searched in the jail in March 2018 after a woman called to say she thought he had been talking to her on a banned mobile.

Although the initial search found nothing, the defendant then produced a small phone from his body after he became concerned that he would not be able to see his mother, who was visiting from Wales.

Mr Burrows asked Detective Sergeant Alan Whittle about the contacts between the phone handed over by Watkins and other numbers.

He gave details of seven named women who officers found had links to the defendant and whose numbers were found on the phone.

Det Sgt Whittle confirmed that police had seized 600 pages of correspondence between Watkins and women.

He agreed with Mr Burrows, who said: “It is clear that there are a number of females who continue to contact him in prison properly through the Prison Service through letters, through emails and visits.”

But the officer also agreed that some of the numbers in the phone appeared to be unconnected to Watkins, including one registered to the partner of a convicted murder who was housed on the same wing.

A police interview with Watkins was read to the jury of nine men and three women in which he claimed he was being forced to hold the phone for others on the wing.

He said other prisoners had threatened he would get hurt unless he got money from his “groupies”.

Watkins, 42, from Pontypridd, south Wales, denies one count of possessing a mobile phone in prison.

The trial continues on Wednesday.

Additional reporting by Press Association