I'm not THAT Ian Watkins! Company director from Peterborough receives hundreds of abusive tweets confusing him with jailed Lostprophets paedophile



Polite Ian Watkins, 56, from Peterborough, is completely innocent



But hundreds sent abusive messages to his username @ianwatkins



They confused him with paedophile Lostprophets singer of the same name

It comes after Steps singer - also called Ian Watkins - received court apology for his photo being used on a news story about his criminal namesake



A mild-mannered company director from Peterborough has received hundreds of abusive tweets from people who confused him with the paedophile rock singer Ian Watkins.

Unsuspecting businessman Ian Watkins, 56, was lucky enough to take the username @ianwatkins when he joined the social networking site.



But despite being deluged with abuse since the Lostprophets singer of the same name was convicted of child sex offences, Mr Watkins has kept the username - and even replied politely to his attackers.

Innocent: Peterborough businessman Ian Watkins, left, has been deluged with tweets which wrongly call him a paedophile after the Lostprophets singer of the same name, right, was jailed for 35 years for child sex offences

Mix-up: Some of the abusive tweets received by innocent company director Ian Watkins from Peterborough Abuse: One user wrongly called the 56-year-old company director a 'f****** twisted pedophile' [sic] Several users, including @steviejane_, did not initially grasp what Mr Watkins was saying and attacked him further

The tide o f offensive messages continued despite him putting 'Not from the Lost Prop hets' in his biography and creating hashtags such as #checkthebio, #shouldhavegonetospecsavers and #engagebrainb4usingkeyboard.

He repeatedly pointed his attackers to the Lostprophets singer's account, which is @ian_watkins.



To one user who called him a 'vile person', he replied: 'I thought I was pretty decent.'

To another who said he should change his account name, he said: 'Why? Because there's some jerks out there? They need to grow up.'

And when one user said he should die, the businessman replied: 'I'm all in favour of not dying. Have lots left to do. Did you mean @ian_watkins? :-)'

Many users apologised once they realised their mistake, but others misunderstood and accused the innocent businessman of 'trying to pin your sick, deprived [sic] crimes on other people.'



Anger: Many users assumed @ianwatkins was the Lostprophets singer tweeting from prison - it wasn't Attack: This user referred to the Lostprophets singer's 35-year term and his catchphrase 'megalolz' Online abuse: This user demanded an apology, though was one of many attackers who later apologised Moronic: Many Twitter users congratulated Mr Watkins on being so gracious in the face of the ill-directed abuse Salute: This Twitter user said the businessman had 'endless reserves of patience and good humour'

Responding to the furore, the businessman and supporter of anti-people-trafficking campaigns, who has 326 followers, said: 'The inability to differentiate between a rock star Welshman and a slightly balding fattish bloke is beyond some people.

'The saying "stupidity is not a handicap, park elsewhere" always springs to mind when dealing with these people.

Wrongly accused: Innocent Steps singer Ian H Watkins, pictured, received a court apology after he was mistaken for his Lostprophets namesake

'I'll have to tell my parents off for not foreseeing this. It's amazing that 56 years ago they didn't foresee the Internet, Twitter and a namesake who would be the subject of so much hate.'

Asked what he thought of his criminal namesake, Mr Watkins Tweeted: 'We are rightly revulsed by @ian_watkins actions, can anyone stand before God trusting our own righteousness? #allhavefallenshort'

However, he knew little about Lostprophets' music.



'I've never heard them, so can't comment,' he wrote. 'Was surprised when I was followed by lots of EMOs when I joined Twitter :-)'.



The businessman also received hate messages after Steps broke up.

Steps features singer Ian H Watkins, who to his fury, has also been the subject of online mix-ups over his criminal Lostprophets namesake.



The Steps singer's photo has appeared alongside stories about the Lostprophets singer, despite the fact he is entirely innocent.



'H', 37, received a court apology from E! Online last week for the 'distress and damage' that publishing the photo caused.

However, his photo has continued to be reproduced as recently as yesterday.

The Steps singer tweeted: 'MORE awful journalism ! This time from @BoulevardRTL ! REMOVE MY photo from this story NOW ! I am mortified !!!'

Welsh Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins, 36, was jailed at Cardiff Crown Court earlier this month for a string of sickening offences, including the attempted rape of a fan's baby.