Last month, Lostprophets vocalist Ian Watkins pleaded guilty to 13 of the child sex offenses, including the attempted rape of a baby. Now comes word that Watkins will be in prison for a very long time, as he’s been sentence to 35 years for those charges.
Watkins and the two female co-defendants he conspired with were sentenced this morning at Cardiff Crown Court. “Mother A” was sentenced to 14-and-a-half years, while “Woman B” was sentenced to 17 years in prison. While the court reportedly heard Watkins was “deeply deeply sorry” and “belatedly realised the gravity of what happened,” Justice Royce declared that the three of them did broke “new ground” and “plunged into new depths of depravity.”
But that’s not all the court heard this morning. In addition to the sentencing, a transcript of a conversation Watkins had with a female fan from jail the day after pleading guilty was read aloud. During the conversation, Watkins reportedly said that he was going to issue a statement when he was sentenced saying it had all been “mega lolz.” Watkins also reportedly denied being a pedophile and expressed exasperation at the way people had reacted to his guilty pleas. “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,” Watkins supposedly said. Regarding why he chose to plead guilty, Watkins explains “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’” and end up saying ‘I was off my head and do not remember anything.’
There’s also a reason why the term “mega lolz” will sound familiar to Lostprophets fans. The band has actually used that phrase on some of their t-shirts, and even played in front of a backdrop saying “MEGA LOLZ!” on the main stage of the Reading festival in 2010. Needless to say, 35 years in prison may not be enough for Watkins given everything that’s come to light since his arrest last year.
[Via BBC News and The Guardian]
