Paedophile Lostprophets frontman was sending love letters to his secret fiancée until a day before he was killed in prison last Saturday, it is reported.
The disgraced rockstar died aged 48 while serving 29-years behind bars for a string of sexual assaults on children, including the attempted rape of a baby.
In his 2013 sentencing a judge described Watkins as having sunk to ‘new depths of depravity’ as he preyed on fans, two of whom offered up their babies to be abused by him and got sentences of 14 and 17 years.
Now The Sun reports his manipulation of fans continued until the day before his death, as he forged a relationship with a 30-year-old fan called Ellie – not her real name – who he’d previously met backstage at a gig when she was 15.
Watkins, who had correspondence with Ellie over a 10 year period, sent a letter which arrived at her house the day before his throat was slashed by fellow inmates.
‘I want you to know how much I have enjoyed annoying you all this time and how excited I am to continue this in the future. Happy Birthday,’ he wrote, having previously told her to get a ring, proposing to her in prison in front of his fellow inmates.
‘Duchess. Didn’t think I’d forget your birthday did you. They won’t keep us apart forever. Your Duke. IW,’ he also said.
In one letter, Watkins recalled his 2023 prison attack, explaining he ‘almost died’ after he was stabbed in the neck ‘eight times’ leading to spinal nerve damage.
He then reflected: ‘Thankfully I’m still really hot. Someone on the wing said I look like Grindelwald the other day from Fantastic Beasts. So whenever I get compared to Johnny Depp it’s always a good day, haha.’
Watkins also ‘hated’ weekends in HMP Wakefield – nicknamed Monster Mansion – as the prisons were unlocked from their cells, a moment which saw inmates kill him in the end.
Ellie, who spoke with Watkins on the phone most days, revealed that she ‘fell to the floor’ and couldn’t speak or breathe on finding out he’d died.
She had first made contact with him a year after his 2012 arrest in the hope that he would be more accessible, when a fellow fan had encouraged her to, despite initially breaking her obsession with Lostprophets because of his heinous crimes.
After her first letter, Ellie – who knew she was one of four or five women visiting him in prison, with hundreds more sending letters – got an immediate reply saying: ‘I’ve been waiting to hear from you.’
‘I won’t lie, when he replied it made me feel special. He’d chosen to reply to me,’ Ellie said, admitting she wanted to be his favourite.
‘Back then he wasn’t even nice in letters. He was just very controlling, demanding,’ she said, explaining: ‘If I didn’t reply, say if I took a day, two days, because I was busy, he’d be like, why haven’t you written to me? Don’t you care about me? And I’d be so scared not to write to him. I didn’t want him to hate me.’;
During the first six months of their exchanges, Ellie went from 12 to eight stone in weight.
Police confirmed in the aftermath of Watkins’ death that Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, had been charged with his murder and were in police custody.
In December 2012, after Watkins was arrested on drug charges, his sick crimes were exposed when the police seized laptops that contained indecent images of children.
In 2013, Watkins pleaded guilty to numerous sexual offences, including sexual assaults against children, and the possession of indecent images of both children and animals.
In 2014, Watkins was refused the right to appeal against his 35-year sentence. Lawyers for Watkins claimed he should have his jail term cut because his last-minute guilty plea spared a jury from having to watch his home-made child pornography.
Among the disturbing videos due to be shown at his trial included his attempted rape of a baby and a webcam chat in which he instructed a crazed fan to abuse her child.
Lord Justice Pitchford said on the refusal: ‘These were offences against infant children of such shocking depravity that a very lengthy sentence of imprisonment was demanded.
‘It is not demonstrated the total sentence of 29 years together with the extended licence period was arguably manifestly excessive. Accordingly, the application in his case is refused.’
Ahead of the conclusion of his trial, Welsh rock band Lostprophets, which was founded in 1997 by Watkins and guitarist Lee Gaze, cancelled all their shows and disbanded.
Watkins’ Lostprophets co-founder Gaze recently spoke out in the wake of his death, responding to fans on social media.
After Watkins’ guilty plea Gaze, talking of the band’s horror-stricken reaction, said: ‘There was two sets of it [shock] because there were the accusations – which was one thing.
‘And then there was the actual, “Yeah I did do it” which was a year later. He dragged that out for a year, so we got hit by it twice.’
He added: ‘How could you know? How would you know?
‘Who would disclose such a thing to five people, who between them have eight children? You just wouldn’t because they would be killed on the spot.’
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