Female fans warned for nearly four years that Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins was obsessed with child porn... so why didn't the police act sooner?



Ian Watkins, 36, admitted his guilt after last minute plea-change today

Star says he couldn't recall 'depraved acts' because he took crystal meth

Singer admitted he attempted to rape a 11-month-old child in April last year

The boy's mother - Woman A - pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting attack

Another mother - Woman B - allowed singer to plot raping her daughter

GCHQ 'cracked' his laptop and found password was reference to child sex



Watkins remanded in custody and all three will be sentenced in December



Menace: Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins face jail for a string of child sex offences, and seduced fans to get to their children, it was claimed today

The police faced serious questions last night over why they failed to act sooner to stop Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins after it emerged fans had warned for nearly four years that he was obsessed with child porn.

From early 2010 horrified fans who had become friends with Watkins went online to beg for help after discovering vile images on his computer.

Friends claim they called police to tell them the 36-year-old was a paedophile but officers did nothing, allowing him to go on to subject babies to the most horrific abuse.

A disturbing child porn profile created in that time by Watkins was viewed by more than 40,000 people on the internet and yet appears never to have been monitored by authorities.

In one post, written before his arrest, a fan wrote: ‘His on-off girlfriend reported him to police twice for being a paedophile.

‘He sent pornographic pictures of a little girl to a few girls telling them it was a five-year-old girl he’d raped. He also watches child porn constantly. Sick sick man.’



Watkins allegedly boasted to obsessed female fans that he had HIV and was on a mission to pass it on to children.



One fan added: ‘A girl found info on his computer on how to drug children. He told her he was thinking of giving kids drugs. He does need to be arrested before he infects anyone else.’



Watkins was only stopped late last year after South Wales Police raided his home on a drugs tip and stumbled upon his hard drives containing images, videos and conversations about him attacking children.

Yesterday police said he had taken vile pictures of children for as long as five years and may have many other victims across the world.

In August 2010 one fan wrote online that he had been grooming underage girls online.



Guilty: Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins, in the dock at Cardiff Crown Court, admitted a string of child sex offences after a last minute plea change

Five months later, Watkins created a vile online profile, uploading 27 images of himself involved in depraved sex acts. The images were viewed more than 43,000 times.

He had also openly subscribed to groups on the site which contained images of child abuse.

Last night South Wales Police did not respond to questions about why they did not act sooner.



They vowed, however, to keep investigating in case there are more victims.



Watkins was described as a 'determined and committed paedophile' after he admitted attempting to rape a fan's 11-month-old baby son along with 10 other child sex offences.

Prosecution: Cardiff Crown Court heard that Watkins was 'a determined and committed paedophile engaged in serious sex offences involving of two babies'

He changed his plea at the start of his trial but claimed he could not remember the 'depraved' abuse because he was high on crystal meth.



The singer - a former boyfriend of BBC radio and television presenter Fearne Cotton - pleaded guilty to sex offences involving the babies of two women fans, who helped with the abuse.

As Watkins faces a lengthy jail term:

His distraught family described how online porn turned a ‘happy normal lad from the Valleys’ into a paedophile who ‘will be remembered like Jimmy Savile’.

Shocking online profiles showed how the singer did not even try to hide his depravity, for years openly subscribing to child porn sites.

Officers said there may be many more victims across the world.

He pleaded guilty to attempting to rape the 11-month-old baby of a fan 'Woman A' and conspiring to rape the baby daughter of another fan 'Woman B'.

The two fans, both in their twenties and from different parts of England, are also facing jail after admitting their role in the sex offences on their own children.



Cardiff Crown Court heard Watkins was videoed committing the depraved acts and was 'clearly identifiable' because of his many tattoos and his voice.



But Watkins claimed not to remember doing it because he was a 'heavy user' of class A drugs including Crystal Meth at the time.



Watkins spoke only to enter his pleas as he admitted attempting to rape the baby.

The singer, dressed in a three-piece dark blue suit, also admitted sexually assaulting the baby by touching him.

A laptop seized from Watkins's home was password protected and was later sent to GCHQ to have it 'cracked.'



Experts found the password was an obscene reference to child abuse and contained a cache of extreme pornography.



After the star finally admitted what he had done, Prosecuting QC Chris Clee gave details of his sickening crimes.



He said: 'Ian Watkins was the lead singer of a successful band called the Lostprophets.



Watkins was dated Fearne Cotton (pictured together in 2008) and Alexa Chung

'He was also a determined and committed paedophile engaged in serious sex offences involving of two babies.'

Mr Clee read aloud to the court a series of text and internet messages between Watkins and two female co-defendants.



Watkins and Woman A swapped messages where the frontman spoke of his desire to 'make him mine' and to 'cross the line'.



They also spoke of plans to blow crystal-meth smoke into the child's face at a secret meet up in a Cardiff hotel.



And on March 23, Watkins sent the woman a message saying he wanted a 'summer of filthy child porn' and how he wanted to take things 'to the next level'.



Mr Clee also gave details of a sickening 17-minute video involving Watkins and Woman A.



Mr Clee said camcorder footage was shot in a London hotel room which showed Watkins perform a sex act on the child.



Computer analysts found the footage uploaded to an online cloud storage facility.



Mr Clee said that following this meeting, the pair exchanged emails about how they would not go 'easy' on the child next time.



The prosecutor told the judge that both of his attempted rape admissions were accepted, despite Watkins facing rape charges.



He acknowledged that there was an argument regarding what key video evidence seized from Watkins's laptop actually showed.



'From the footage, there is an argument as to whether the full offence is made out,' he told judge Mr Justice Royce.



'If it is made out, it is minimal. There is so little difference between the full attempt and the attempt as to make no difference.



'We are prepared to accept the pleas as tendered.'

He also told the judge that the prosecution had in mind the effect on the jury of watching the explicit video footage - at previous hearings discussed arranging counselling for jurors who might need it.

Depraved: The rock star had denied the crimes but police realised it was him because of his distinctive tattoos and his voice

Paedophile: Cardiff Crown Court heard Watkins was videoed committing the depraved acts and was 'clearly identifiable' because of his many tattoos and his voice

As talk of sentence was discussed in court, a pale faced and grey haired Watkins began shaking in the dock.

It emerged that he was filmed committing the sex acts on the baby boy the day after Lostprophets final album Weapons was released.



Watkins appeared on BBC Radio 1 just hours before the incident in April last year.

The baby's mother, Woman A, admits aiding and abetting the attempted rapes on her son.

She also admits sexually touching the child and taking photographs, before sending them to Watkins.



Watkins also admitted conspiring to rape and sexually touch the daughter of the second fan.



He admits aiding and abetting Woman B to touch her daughter while he watched on Skype.



An earlier court hearing was told police had 72 pages of conversations between the pair online talking about their sexual relationship.

Woman B mentioned she had a daughter of a young age and Watkins said: 'Bring her along as well.'



She said she was getting the child ready for their meeting together - and 'what they all will do together' when they meet up.



The prosecution said the investigation led police to discover Woman B and Watkins had met once in a hotel in Cardiff.

South Wales police DCI Peter Doyle (right ) and Catrin Evans (centre, front) from the CPS talk to the press outside Cardiff Crown Court

Catrin Evans, head of the complex casework unit at the Crown Prosecution Service Wales, saidthe case demonstrated 'sexual exploitation' at its worst

Scrum: Photographers take pictures through the windows of a van carrying the singer - who has been held in jail before his trial

Star: Ian Watkins, with his mother Elaine. He claims that he was high on drugs so doesn't remember what he did

Popular group: Watkins (left) formed Lostprophets (pictured) in 1997 with friends from the small former mining town of Pontypridd, and it made them millionaires

WATKINS ABUSED UNDERAGE FANS AND FLEW ONE TO NEW YORK SO HE COULD 'TAKE HER VIRGINITY'

Singer Ian Watkins filmed sex with an underage fan in a New York hotel, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

The prosecution said a girl, 16, contacted Watkins saying she was a fan who was still a virgin and went on to agree to give her virginity to him.

She then flew from Boston to New York and went to a hotel where he was staying, bringing with her a schoolgirl outfit he had asked her to dress in.

The film shows them having sex and he asked her: 'Do you like being my underage slut.'

Watkins, after being arrested, originally claimed that he was being stalked by a 'crazed fan.'

'The suggestion being made by Ian Watkins was that he was the victim of a malicious campaign to label him a paedophile,'Chris Clee said.

He also said that a laptop seized from Watkins's home was password protected and was later sent to GCHQ to have it 'cracked.

She admits sexual assault after touching the child, she also admits taking an indecent photograph of the child before distributing them.



Watkins also admitted three counts of possessing indecent photographs of children when he appeared at Cardiff Crown Court.

Some of the content was found on internet storage websites CrashPlan and iCloud which Watkins used to keep his data while touring around the world.

Watkins is also accused of taking indecent photographs of a child dating back to 2007 - 10 months after Lostprophets released the biggest selling song Rooftops.



The song got to number 8 in the UK charts - making it their most successful single alongside 2004's Last Train Home.



Watkins, of Pontypridd, South Wales, also admits taking indecent photographs in 2008.



The singer, who has sold more than 3.5million albums with the Lostprophets, had denied all allegations and claimed he was a victim of a 'conspiracy to frame him'.



But Watkins, who waved at a group of young people in the public gallery, changed his plea on the day his trial was due to start.



Sally O'Neill QC, defending, said: 'His position is still the same and he says he cannot remember the events depicted in the videos.'



Watkins argue that it was possible the videos may have been electronically altered. But he dropped his defence after legal argument.



Miss O'Neill said: 'He has had expert advice from computer experts and because of this he is now in a position to change his plea.'

Watkins and the women will be sentenced on December 18 at the same court.



Pae dophile Watkins' child sex crimes leave fans a round th e world in shoc k

Disgraced rock singer Ian Watkins' fall from grace has been as sudden as it has been shocking for his fans and bandmates.



Lostprophets burst onto the scene in 2000 with their highly-acclaimed debut album TheFakeSoundofProgress.



Despite the LP being put together on a modest budget and issued by a small independent label, its nu-metal stylings, catchy chorus and Watkins's poppy vocals made Lostprophets stand out among their peers.



Disgraced: Ian Watkins sold millions of records as lead singer of Lostprophets but his crimes have shocked the band and his fans

And following rave reviews, the Welsh rockers' fanbase continued to expand.



This in turn saw them snapped up by influential management company QPrime - whose roster included rock heavyweights such as Metallica and Red Hot Chilli Peppers.



A major label deal soon followed and saw the band's second album Start Something become a commercial success in 2002 both at home in the UK and the US.



Watkins' poster boy image and apparently clean-living lifestyle seemed to enhance their appeal further.



In a number of early interviews, the rock singer was more than happy to talk up how he regularly shunned drink and drugs.



And his self-crafted lothario image, which at one stage saw him date TV presenter Fearne Cotton, did no harm in helping propel Lostprophets into the mainstream.



In 2006, their third album Liberation Transmission went to number one in the UK album charts - and the first single from the LP reached number eight.



Relief: Members of Lostprophets have stayed largely quiet about Watkins (centre right) but bandmate Lee Gaze (centre left) tweeted his relief after the singer's guilty pleas today

Upset: Thousands of people have taken to Twitter to express their disgust and anger at what Watkins has done, and also the impact this has has had on his innocent bandmates

And although second single, A Town Called Hypocrisy reached the modest position of 23 - its promo video featuring Watkins as a kids TV presenter enjoyed regular airplay on music channels.



However, cracks in Watkins's life soon started to appear - with rumours emerging of him being a sex-crazed drug addict who regularly conducted seedy online sex chats with young fans.



Pictures also purporting to show Watkins engaging in a threesome with a transsexual emerged on the internet.



When a journalist from a music magazine quizzed the graphic design graduate about the images he remained coy - and suggested he had faked the photographs as well as leaked them.



Before his trial was aborted, Watkins used the same excuse of "it's been faked" when video footage of him showing him aroused and with a naked baby was found by police.



Before changing his mind at the 11th hour, the singer had stuck to a "fanciful" claim that it was not him in the video - and someone had doctored the footage.



But the prosecution said distinctive arm and neck tattoos proved the person in the video was him.



Painful: Six weeks ago the remaining members of the Lostprophets said on Facebook they were heartbroken and had to split up

Following 'expert advice' from his legal team, Watkins admitted it was him in the video - but claimed he was too high on drugs to remember exactly what happened.



His chaotic lifestyle was beginning to show on what ended up being the Lostprophets' final tour with gig goers describing the singer's behaviour as bizarre.



When news of him being charged by police broke, his bandmates spoke of their total shock.



Their website was shut down, with a brief statement saying they were 'in a state of shock' and were 'learning about the details of the investigation along with you' and saying all future tour dates cancelled.



And around a month before the trial was listed at Cardiff Crown Court, the remaining members of Lostprophets announced they had split up.



In a statement, the group said: 'After nearly a year of coming to terms with our heartache we will no longer make or perform music as Lostprophets'. The post was signed by all members of the band except Watkins.

The remaining members kept a dignified silence on the matter, despite receiving scores of abusive messages from internet trolls,



But lead guitarist Gaze could not hide his relief on a social networking site when learning that Watkins had pleaded guilty.



After re-tweeting a message about Watkins from an account called '@UKpaedosnamed', the six stringer wrote: 'That was over quick. Thank f***.



'Thanks for the kind words. At least there is closure now.'



' T he most shocking case I have ever seen' : Police say rock star Watk i ns used his celebrity sta t us to abuse children

Fame and fortune: Police called it the most shocking child abuse case they had seen and believed Watkins used his celebrity status to abuse children

The veteran police chief who headed the investigation into Ian Watkins's trail of sex abuse appealed today for other victims to come forward.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Doyle described the case as 'the most shocking and harrowing child abuse evidence I have ever seen'.



And he vowed that the hunt to uncover other victims of the abuse would continue.



'There is no doubt in my mind that Ian Watkins exploited his celebrity status in order to abuse young children,' he said.



'Today's outcome ensures that the three people responsible have been brought to justice.



'The safeguarding of children has been the primary objective for the investigation team and the outcome of this investigation has been achieved through a multi-agency approach at an international level.'



He added: 'Two very young children have been removed from this abuse and given a future that would otherwise have been denied them.



'The investigation has been extremely complex and challenging with key information and evidence being identified from witnesses worldwide.



'A significant amount of electronic data has been retrieved from computers and web based storage which has provided crucial evidence to support the case.



'South Wales Police has worked in partnership with Interpol, other police forces, National Crime Agency's CEOP command, local authorities in England and Wales, the Department of Homeland Security in the USA and the NSPCC.



'Today's outcome does not mark the end of our investigations and we will work tirelessly to identify any other victims or witnesses and seek the justice they deserve.



'Above all this investigation has been focussed on the protection of children and my thoughts today are with those victims'.

Catrin Evans, Head of Complex Casework Unit for the Crown Prosecution Service in Wales, added: 'The three defendants in this case have admitted very serious sexual offences committed against extremely young children, demonstrating sexual exploitation at its worst'.

