Ian Watkins 'Monster Mansion' jail where Lostprophets paedo had 'target on back'
Category A prison HMP Wakefield carries the chilling nickname 'Monster Mansion' for holding around 600 of Britain’s most dangerous criminals.
On Saturday it was reported that three unnamed inmates held paedophile and disgraced Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins hostage for six hours where he was beaten and stabbed in the neck in a 'targeted and prolonged' attack.
Officers had to wait for an armed 'Tornado' team of specially trained riot officers to break up the situation with grenades being hurled into the cell to free Watkins.
The former frontman, 46, has been locked up at the west Yorkshire prison since 2013 when he was jailed for 35 years for 13 offences against children, including the attempted rape of an 11 month old baby.
A source told The Sun Watkins has been walking around with a 'target on his back' with fellow inmates biding for less staff to be on shift to make their move.
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The B-wing at Wakefield Prison, West Yorkshire which holds 570 inmates, 70% of whom are serving life and 20% serving 10 years or more (PA)Watkins is now said to be 'fighting for his life' after being given emergency treatment in an ambulance outside the prison where he has been caged for the last ten years.
The Lostprophets Singer included, HMP Wakefield is home to some of Britain's most high-profile, high-risk sex offenders and murderers. The likes of Charles Bronson, Harold Shipman and Jeremy Bamber have been counted among the notorious residents.
After being caught with a mobile phone behind bars in 2019, Watkins told a court that he was locked up with "murderers, mass murderers, rapists, paedophiles, serial killers'.
"The worst of the worst," he told the judge, before another 10 months were added to his sentence for the rule break.
Wakefield is one of oldest prisons in the UK having originally been built as a correction house back in 1594 with many of the current buildings dating from the Victoria era. In 2001 an ultra-secure unit - the first of its kind in the UK - was added to the site, built especially to cage some of Britain's most dangerous criminals.
A cell in the segregation unit with fixed bed, table and cardboard chair (PA Archive/Press Association Images)The notorious jail also contains an underground glass box where murderer Robert Maudsley, chillingly dubbed 'Hannibal the Cannibal', has spent over 16,500 consecutive days in isolation.
Channel 5 documentary HMP Wakefield: Evil Behind Bars revealed that sex offenders are regarded as the “lowest form of life” in the prison with one contributor to the programme referring to those inmates as the "dregs of society".
Watkins is not the first prisoner to have been attacked on the grounds with previous attacks being made against inmates who commit crimes against children. In August 2022 Lithuanian Deividas Skebas, a former fruit picket, had to be airlifted to hospital after a group set upon him. He had been serving time for stabbing nine-year-old Lilia Valutyte to death.
Roy Whiting, who murdered schoolgirl Sarah Payne, has been slashed and scarred in a number of revenge attacks made against him during his time at Wakefield.
In 1978, Robert Maudsley killed two fellow prisoners at Wakefield Prison in one day; he had originally set out to kill seven.
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Some of HMP Wakefield's most notorious inmates include:
Robert Maudsley
Robert Maudsley spends all of his time alone, entombed in a glass box deep in the bowels of the prison (Unknown)Robert John Maudsley has killed four people, with one of the killings taking place in a psychiatric hospital and two in prison after receiving a life sentence for a murder.
Maudsley - dubbed Hannibal the Cannibal - has been in jail since the age of 21, after he was found guilty of murdering convicted child molester John Farrell, aged 30, in 1974.
He surrendered himself to police, and was later sent to Broadmoor hospital after being deemed unable to stand trial. While under psychiatric care, Maudsley and another patient, David Cheeseman, tortured a third patient to death over a period of nine hours. Maudsley was convicted of manslaughter and sent to Wakefield Prison.
In 1978 Maudsley killed two fellow prisoners at Wakefield Prison in one day. After stabbing two inmates to death, Maudsley is said to have calmly walked into the wing office and told guards there would be 'two short' on the next roll call.
Earlier this year, the twisted triple murderer set a new world record for the most days spent in solitary confinement, and last month, he turned 70 behind bars. The specially-built cell, where he is kept at Wakefield Prison, is said to be 18ft by 15ft - which is slightly bigger than average - and has a concrete slab for a bed.
Maudsley is now deemed to be so dangerous that he is no longer allowed to associate with other prisoners or even guards, and spends all of his time alone, entombed in a glass box deep in the bowels of the prison. He will never again be a free man and instead remains in the tiny see-through room that has been his home for decades.
Jeremy Bamber
Jeremy Bamber is serving a life sentence with no chance of parole (PA)
HMP Wakefield is home to some of the UK's worst murderers (Crown copyright)Bamber is serving life with no chance of parole after he was convicted of the White House farm murders - a desperate attempt to steal a large inheritance and blame his schizophrenic 28-year-old sister. He killed his adoptive parents, sister, and nephews in the 1985 massacre.
The now 62-year-old has tried repeatedly to have his conviction overturned. As of this year, Bamber has spent 38 years behind bars making him one of the longest serving prisoners in the UK.
Roy Whiting
Whiting was found guilty of the abduction and murder of seven-year-old Sarah Payne in July 2000.
Ineligible for parole until 2051, Whiting has been the target of a number of revenge attacks while inside HMP Wakefield.
In 2002 he was attacked with a razor while fetching hot water. Then in 2004 murderer Rickie Tregaskis slashed Whiting and left him with a six-inch scar across his right cheek, adding a further six years to his sentence.
In July 2011 Whiting was attacked again after being stabbed in the eye but decided not to press charges. He was attacked for a fourth time in 2018 when he was stabbed by two other prisoners and taken to hospital for treatment. He later returned to his cell in a stable condition.
Harold Shipman
Shipman was found hanging dead in his cell on January 13, 2004, the day before his 58th birthday (Getty Images)British doctor Shipman is thought to be one of the most prolific serial killers of all time. Before his suicide, the man dubbed ‘Dr Death’ had been convicted of murdering 15 patients but was thought to have killed far more.
He is suspected to have killed as many as 250 people, and would kill elderly patients by either lethally injecting them with a drug, or prescribing abnormal amounts.
He died at HMP Wakefield on January 13, 2004.
Reynhard Sinaga
Sinaga, an Indonesian PhD student at Leeds University, would lure victims to his flat before sedating and raping them - then taking to WhatsApp to boast about his actions. Known as ‘Britain’s worst rapist’ he was sent to Wakefield in 2020 after sexually assaulting up to 200 men - including 136 rapes of young men committed in Manchester between 2015 and 2017.
Reynhard Sinaga, 36, lured drunk men back to his Manchester city centre apartment before poisoning them with GHB and raping them while they were ‘comatose’. (MEN Media)He was sentenced in January 2020 to 40 years in jail.
Charles Bronson
Charles Bronson, regarded as the country’s 'most violent prisoner’ has also enjoyed a spate of time behind Wakefield’s bars.
Bronson who was born under the name Michael Peterson was convicted of armed robbery in 1974 and gone on to spend most of his life behind bars.
Ian Watkins
Former Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins was sentenced to 29 years in prison in 2013 after being convicted of a string of 'depraved' crimes against young children, which included attempting to rape an 11-month-old baby. Detective Chief Inspector Peter Doyle said at the time: "The investigation uncovered the most disturbing child abuse evidence I have seen in my 28 years as a police officer."
The Sunday Mirror revealed that Watkins was fighting for his life after three inmates took him, hostage, on Saturday morning. It's claimed that the former musician suffered from stab wounds and beatings.
It took prison officers around six hours to free the convicted sex offender which resulted in stun grenades being used. Sources claim that medical staff were working in an ambulance outside the West Yorkshire-based prison in a bid to save Watkins' life.
A source revealed that there had been fears the attack would have killed Watkins. A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Police are investigating an incident which took place on Saturday at HMP Wakefield. We are unable to comment further while the police investigate.”
In 2013, the Welsh native pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court to 13 child sex offences. He also admitted to the rape and sexual assault of a child who was under the age of 13. Watkins 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.
Sentencing Mr Justice Royce said the case broke 'new ground' and 'plunged into new depths of depravity'. He said Watkins had a 'corrupting influence' and had shown a 'complete lack of remorse'. He added Watkins posed a significant risk to the public in particular to women with young children.
The musician was later handed an extra 10 months after he was discovered to have a mobile phone in his possession while behind bars. Initially, he denied having a three-inch GSTAR phone in his cell. As the verdict was read out, Watkins claimed that "known murderers" in his prison told him to keep an eye on the phone after chucking it on his bed.
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