Ian Watkins murder accused 'hated sex offenders'

A prisoner who stabbed Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins to death has told a court he muttered the words "this is what paedophiles deserve" before slashing his throat.

Watkins was attacked in his cell at high-security HMP Wakefield on 11 October.

Giving evidence at Leeds Crown Court on Wednesday, Rico Gedel, 25, said he hated sharing a wing with sex offenders at the jail, and had openly threatened to assault "any number of paedophiles" if he was not transferred.

Gedel and his co-accused Samuel Dodsworth have both denied murder and possession of a makeshift knife in prison.

During Wednesday's hearing, Gedel said he had decided to "stab someone" in order to get moved off the wing, and chose Watkins, who was in the cell next to him, due to "proximity".

The defendant said he felt he had been "set up" by prison officers who knew how much he hated paedophiles, and said they were "just as much to blame as I am".

Watkins was jailed for 29 years in December 2013, with a further six years on licence, after admitting a string of sex offences – including the attempted rape of a fan's baby.

Gedel also said Watkins had used racial slurs to him the night before the fatal attack, after he started verbally abusing him through the cell walls.

He told jurors he had a hatred of sex offenders because he had family members who had been sexually assaulted, adding: "It's something people live with for the rest of their lives."

Gedel said he made a point of finding out who the sex offenders were on his wing when he was moved to HMP Wakefield.

He said he had only had three interactions with Watkins, including one when they were on the same wing earlier that year, when he verbally abused the former singer through his cell door.

He told the court Watkins had racially abused him in response.

Gedel said he was moved back onto the same wing as Watkins the night before the fatal attack after he assaulted three prisoners on another wing, claiming one of them "was selling baby photos and boasting about him being a paedophile".

Gedel said that on the morning of the attack he was given a makeshift knife by Dodsworth after telling him he needed a weapon.

"There was no other option than to cause violence to get off the wing," Gedel said.

Gedel told the court he felt "sad about having to go to those extremes".

Asked by his barrister Peter Moulson KC if he wanted to kill Watkins, Gedel said: "Some part of me did, yes."

Gedel told the court: "Sometimes what we are thinking is not what we intend to do.

"Sometimes what your heart wants is not what your brain wants.

"I don't think much, I'm not a thinker…sometimes my impulse is not what I want.

"My heart was saying 'he deserves it, he's a paedophile. Think of your family members, think of his victims'. My brain was saying 'it's not the thing to do'."

Gedel said he believed he was set up because "prison officers knew I was a violent person, they knew I was going to commit this act".

"I'm not here to prove my innocence, I admit to what's happened, whether that was the intention or not, I take full responsibility for what's happened.

"But the prison officers are just as much to blame as I am."

Gedel said he had been taken into care at the age of three after his mother burned him with a kettle. He began selling drugs aged 11.

He said that he was "wrongly convicted" of murdering a man in 2023 and that there was "lots of evidence he never had a weapon" during that attack.

Jurors were told that prosecutors in that case could not identify which of three men inflicted the fatal wound, but Gedel was sentenced on the basis that it was a joint attack and intended to kill.

Gedel said the conviction had affected him "immensely," telling jurors: "When you get found guilty for a crime you haven't committed and you have to spend the rest of your life in prison, you have no hope, you have no future.

"All your hopes and dreams, you have to throw them in the bin."

He said he had been assaulted by other prisoners and prison officers since being in custody, and had sometimes carried a weapon because it was "necessary".

The trial continues.

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