Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins has been sentenced to 35 years in jail for multiple child sex offenses, including the attempted rape of a baby.
Watkins, 36, was sentenced to 35 years on Wednesday, Dec. 18, after pleading guilty to 13 child sex offenses in November, according to the BBC. He will serve 29 years in jail and will remain under police supervision for six years. He will be up for parole after serving two-thirds of the sentence.
Two female co-defendants, who pleaded guilty to various sex offenses against their own children, were also sentenced Wednesday alongside Watkins. They received sentences of 14 years and 17 years, the BBC noted.
"You had many fawning fans," the judge told Watkins, who had fronted Lostprophets since the group formed in 1997, per Sky News. "That gave you power. You knew you could use that power to induce young female fans to ... help satisfy your insatiable lust and take part in the sexual abuse of their own children. Away from the highlights of your public performances lay a dark and sinister side."
Detective Chief Inspector Peter Doyle called Watkins a "committed, organized pedophile," who has shown "no empathy, no sympathy or any remorse."
He sexually groped a fan's baby son and then attempted to rape the child, according to the Telegraph. He also convinced another groupie to abuse her child during a webcam chat.
Authorities fear these incidents are not isolated.
Two days after he admitted to the attempted rape in court, Watkins spoke to a female fan from prison and referred to the incident as "mega lolz," according to The Guardian.
"I'm going to put out a statement on the 18th just to say it was mega lolz. I do not know what everybody is getting so freaked out about," he said, according to a transcript of the conversation. "It was like either I go up there and say: 'Come on it was not that bad. Nobody got hurt,' [or] try to win them over with my charm."
In November, Watkins pleaded guilty to charges including the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13 years old, "three counts of sexual assault involving children and six involving taking, making or possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal," per the BBC.
Watkins' lawyer attempted to argue that the defendant "unravelled" because of drug use and the pressures of fame, the Telegraph noted.
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