May 5, 2026 • 39 mins
The story about Ian Watkins of Lostprophets might be the most disturbing I’ve come across in all my music history research. It involves the abuse of children and a monstrous abuse of power and fame. It also takes place in, among other places, an aptly named prison called “The Monster Mansion”, and like most great stories, it involves an unlikely hero and a twisted sort of justice. This episode will shock you.
This episode contains themes that may be disturbing to some listeners, including child sexual abuse.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is
a production of Double Elvis. The story about Ian Watkins
(00:23):
from Lost Prophets. It might be the most disturbing story
that I've come across in all of my music history research.
It involves the sexual abuse of children and at its core,
a monstrous abuse of power and fame. But as is
the case with a lot of great stories, an unlikely
hero emerges in this one one who authorities ignored in
(00:46):
favor of protecting their own, one who authorities laughed off
in order to preserve some hometown pride, and one who
may have saved countless children from the designs of a monster.
A monster, Ian Watkins from a band Lost Prophets, who
made music not particularly interesting music by my ears, and
(01:08):
certainly not great music, similar in its lack of greatness
to the music that I played for you at the
top of this show. That wasn't great music either. That
was a preset loop for my melotron called Richard Burton's
Monster Mash MK two. I played you that loop because
I can't afford the rights to we are never ever
getting back together, And why would I play you that
(01:31):
specific slice of pre Travis Cheese? Could I afford it?
Because that was the number one song in America on
September twenty one, twenty twelve, and that was the day
that Ian Watkins was arrested, an event that revealed to
everyone the depths of this rock stars depravity depraved behavior
(01:51):
so dark and so extreme that to this day it's
still hard to understand Ian Watkins's life is a rock
star wound up with him doing time in one of
the world's most notorious prisons, a place that housed serial killers,
a place that suited Ian Watkins because it was a
place that they called the Monster Mansion. On this episode
(02:17):
Depravity Abuse, the Monster Mansion, an unlikely hero and a
new metal monster, Ian Watkins from Lost Prophets. I'm Jake
Brennan and this is disgrace Land. It's hard to know
(03:01):
what Ian Watkins, singer of the Welsh new metal band
Lost Prophets, knew or understood about the effects of giving
cocaine to an infant baby. There was, and understandably is,
little information to be found on the subject. You can
find plenty of data about the effects of babies who
were born addicted to cocaine from prenatal use of the
(03:23):
drug by their mothers. These effects include lower birth rate,
smaller head circumference, neurological impairment, and congenital heart defects. But,
like I said, little can be found on what kind
of effects infants demonstrate when given cocaine after birth, because
who would do such a thing Only a monster. Ian
(03:45):
Watkins was this exact type of monster, and he was
hell bent on doing this exact type of atrocious thing.
The question of whether or not cocaine would cause the
infant to behave in a way that would enhance the
sex was what Ian was determined to find out that
he needed to know, and to find out he needed
(04:06):
a baby. Finding a baby would not be a problem,
not for Ian Watkins, because for Ian Watkins there were women,
lots of women, fans of lost prophets, many of them
young mothers who would do anything for the black clad
front man with the shock of angular email bangs that
they all soooned over, and for some this meant agreeing
(04:29):
to give up their children for unspeakable acts of depravity.
These women agreed to do so in the letters that
they wrote to Ian Watkins in their emails and in
their DMS discussions with one woman in particular, detailed the
various ways in which she and the front man were
going to sexually abuse her ten month old son. These
(04:50):
messages are too disturbing to repeat, but just imagine the
literal worst harm a sexual predator can unleash upon an infant,
and you'll be in the ballpark. And if you absolutely
need to know, you can search the text of case
number sixty two CAA, linked from the show notes page
on our website. But I wouldn't advise that explaining this
(05:13):
behavior is nearly impossible, but at least some of it
can be chalked up to the twisted fascination that some
women had with Ian Watkins, who was a bonafide rock
star and during the early and mid odds, Lost Prophets
won a slew of UK music awards, including Best Band
from Kerrang and Best Metal Act from NME. The band
(05:35):
had four top ten albums on the UK album charts,
and it crossed over onto the alternative American charts with
their two thousand and four hit Last Trained Home. By
twenty eleven, Lost Profits had sold nearly four million albums
and Ian Watkins's vocals, stage presence and dark and mysterious
persona were big reasons why. Picture big chunky, corn like
(05:59):
metal rips and high energy UK punk paste energy and
emo vocals sung and screamed by a front man with
looks that many women considered handsome, dressed in low slung
girl jeans, white belt, in tight black T shirt and
an even tighter skull choker clinched around his neck. That
was Ian Watkins that was lost profits at the moment
(06:22):
sometime around two thousand and eight, that dude Ian Watkins
wasn't on stage. Instead, he was in a dark drug
den of his own making, littered with the paraphernalia needed
to ingest the wide array of drugs Watkins indulged in
on a regular basis. The spoon and syringe for the
heroine that he not only injected into himself, but injected
(06:45):
into lovers as a manifestation of his sexual aggression. For
the cocaine, there were the bendles and the dirty dollar
bills strewn about to snort the stimulant which fueled the
singer's craving to push his sexual boundaries. And there was
the puki, the bubble oil burner, whatever you wanted to
call it. It was used to smoke crystal mess. And
(07:05):
then there were the grimy cups with their insides poked
with hardened crystals from mostly dissolved GHB, the drug that
Walkins used to fuel his near constant quest for euphoria.
All of it defined how Ian Walkins spent his days
in between gigs, high or chasing a high that would
(07:25):
supercharge his depraved sexual fantasies. At the moment, he had
a month's long plan to use cocaine to ply an
infant sexually so that he could Okay, so this is
uncharted territory for me as a storyteller. I'm not sure
how to spell out in the style of this podcast. Anyways,
the depths of Ian Watkins's crimes. So you're gonna have
(07:46):
to bear with me on the telling of this tale
as I proceed with caution. The truth of this particularly
disturbing part of the story, which is crucial to understanding
what Ian Watkins did and how he was eventually brought
to justice, is that, incredibly, the Lost Profits singer was
putting together a plan to rape an infant, and he
was going to use cocaine for reasons that I still
(08:09):
don't fully understand to help him do this, and the
cocaine wasn't just for him again, it was for the
infant to infants, actually two babies that belonged to two
different women, both fans of the Lost Profits singer, both
complicit in this crime. As for the more normal fans
of Lost Profits, in their defense, aside from a couple
(08:32):
shady interviews with the band in which Ian Watkins coyly
alludes to a darker side, there was little in the
band's history, both on and off record, that would point
to this type of behavior from the band's frontman. So
we can't point fingers at Ian Walkins's bandmates, and most don't.
Members of Lost Profits have gone on to continue their
careers in the music industry. One bass player, Stuart Richardson,
(08:56):
toured with Thursday last year, and Elon Rubin, who for
Lost Profits at one point, now plays in the Foo Fighters.
On stage, Lost Profits promoted a concept Ian called Megalles
lolls as in all the laugh out louds. It was
as stupid as it sounds, but yes, it took off.
(09:17):
By twenty ten, the Megalles catchphrase was synonymous with the
band itself. It meant I gathered to take nothing seriously,
a sort of millennial manifestation of new metal indifference, drug sex,
rock and roll and not giving a fuck. Lost Profits
performed in front of a giant Megalles banner at their
(09:38):
main stage appearances at the Retting and Leeds festivals in
twenty ten. They emblazoned T shirts with the catchphrase and
hawked them to their fans and giggle the phrase out
of their shit eating grins and interviews with the rock press.
The goal of Lost Profits was to obtain fame by
not giving a fuck, and the goal of their singer,
Ian Watkins, was to use that fame to con unspeakable
(10:01):
acts of sexual abuse against miners and again. Two women,
two fans, were working with Ian Watkins, the rock star,
to devise a plan to use cocaine to help him
rape their infant children. I use the word rock star
intentionally because Ian Watkins knew that without his rock star status,
(10:23):
none of the depravity he hoped to achieve would be possible.
(10:57):
The identities of the two women who conspire tired with
Ian Watkins are still unknown. Their identities are kept secret,
primarily to protect the anonymity of their children. Who are
the victims here? These two mothers, essentially groupies of Ian Watkins,
are known only as B in p B as in
(11:17):
Brianna and P as in Phoebe, which is what we're
going to call them for the purposes of this episode,
Brianna and Phoebe. Before Brianna and Phoebe and the planned
sexual abuse of their babies, there were other girls, other groupies,
other victims, sixteen year olds, one whom the courts called
t T and another was kJ. T T was just sixteen,
(11:41):
a vergin. Ian Watkins dressed her up in a schoolgirl uniform.
Court documents detailed the video he made of himself degrading
TT after taking her virginity with extreme acts of sexual violence.
As for kJ, the court docs are not any less graphic.
kJ All sixteen was plied sexually by Ian Watkins with cocaine.
(12:04):
As with TT, the act was captured on video. Degrading
children sexually was a pattern that Ian Watkins evidently established
back in two thousand and eight. But back to Brianna
and Phoebe. Ian Watkins met Brianna in twenty eleven, and
I have to jump ahead here in the story to
clear something up as this story progresses, you will hear
(12:26):
how the monster, Ian Watkins was eventually caught, charged, convicted,
and served justice. Now there is no mystery to how
this story ends, but it needs to be said now
that Ian Watkins was officially convicted of conspiring to sexually
assault children. However, the video detailed in the official court
documents proves that Ian Watkins absolutely, one hundred percent did
(12:52):
indeed sexually assault children, including a baby Brianna's baby boy,
who she brought to the ky West Hotel in London
on April second, twenty twelve and presented to Ian Watkins
for the purposes of sex. The horrific abuse that followed
was discovered on video. As for Phoebe, court documents reveal
(13:14):
text messages with Phoebe pledging hers and her baby daughter's
lives to Ian Watkins. After Watkins texted Phoebe, if you
belong to me, so does your baby. Phoebe responded with understandable.
A mother daughter slave duo worshiping you. Watkins replied with
that's all she'll know, a life of filth. The text
(13:37):
thread then devolves into the rock star and the groupie
discussing the merits of fallatio with infants, using drugs to
ease the sexual friction with infants and forcing them into
acts of best reality. The evidence incredibly extends beyond conspiring
to actual photographic images and Skype video of Phoebe abusing
(14:00):
her daughter for the pleasure of Ian Watkins. The events
I just described took place in twenty twelve, but back
in two thousand and eight, Ian Walkins girlfriend at the time,
Joanne Magelix, discovered that the rock star she was dating
was sick in a way that was beyond belief. The
saga with Joanne started back in two thousand and six
(14:23):
with the DM you Up. Not only was Joanne up,
Joanne was down. She was infatuated with Ian Watkins from
Lost Prophets, so being on the receiving end of a
direct message from him was just about the most thrilling
thing that could have happened to the twenty nine year
old from Doncaster in South Yorkshire back in two thousand
and six, and Joanne quickly fell for Ian. A relationship began,
(14:48):
but it wasn't long before her new famous rock star
boyfriends depravity became clear to her. Sometime around two thousand
and eight, Ian Walkins told Joanna Maagelix that he was
going to rape a base be of an obsessed fan,
saying that his fans would allow him to do this,
that they would quote do anything for him. It was
(15:09):
in December of two thousand and eight when Joanne went
to police in South Wales and reported her famous boyfriend,
but she didn't leave him and nothing happened. In April
two thousand and nine, Joanne went back to South Wales
authorities to inquire about the investigation. She was told by
police that any investigation into the local frontman Ian Wontkins
(15:29):
for sexual assault upon children had been dropped. By twenty ten,
Ian Watkins had shown Joanne abhorrent videos of children and
animals being abused sexually. It is believed that it was
sometime in and around these events when Joanne left Ian
but maintained some contact in order to gather evidence against him.
(15:51):
It was Joanne's contention that if Welsh authorities weren't going
to do anything about the monster fronting lost profits, then
she would have to do it on her own. In
twenty eleven, Joanne emailed the Association of Chief Police Officers
to allege that Watkins was raping a child and Joanne
also contends that in twenty eleven, she kept up efforts
(16:11):
to gather evidence from me and Watkins, playing the part
of the co conspirator with him. In one text to
Watkins from that year, she wrote, part of me feels
you get off on showing me stuff you can get
away with, knowing that is what I've wanted since forever.
Joanne signed off on another message to Union child Molesters
till we die again. Joanne Magulix contends that this behavior
(16:37):
was done in some sort of undercover effort to bring
forth more evidence against Ian Watkins. It should be noted
again that prior to these texts, Joanne had already gone
to the police numerous times and was essentially ignored. Police
later claimed their indifference towards Joanne's allegations was due to
the fact that Joanne once made money as a sex worker.
(16:58):
Police believed that Joanne was a spurn lover and that
her allegations against the local rock star were fabricated because
he had upset her. One officer said to Joanne, he
must really have upset you. But Joanne wouldn't be denied.
She pressed on. She filmed herself opening images on her
(17:18):
laptop that Ian Watkins had sent to her graphic images
of a girl under sixteen being abused, and she brought
those to the police. Still, incredibly, the police did nothing.
They claimed the girl in the video was of age.
How the hell would they know? Why didn't the authorities
(17:38):
at least investigate the video further to confirm the age
of the girl in the video. Joanne didn't know the
answer to that, so she took it a step further.
In the fall of twenty twelve, Joanne Magelix got wind
of Ian Watkins's plan with one of the mothers. He
was conspiring with, either Brianna or Phoebe, and this time
(17:58):
Joanne called a different set of authorities, Child Services, to
understand the wall the joym Majelicks repeatedly ran into with
their efforts to bring attention to Ian Watkins's crimes. You
have to understand what Ian Watkins's band Lost Profits meant
to the city of Cardiff into South Wales. Lost Prophets
(18:20):
were hometown heroes. They were a band on the rise
and there was no ceiling in sight. They sold millions
of records and their faces were all over the television
in the UK videos, interviews, festival appearances and seemingly NonStop
appearances at music awards shows. Lost Profits were an immense
source of pride for their hometown. Aside from superfurry animals
(18:42):
or Budgy. Bands of Consequence didn't really come out of
South Wales, and unless you were part of a super
niche subset of nineties britpop, you didn't really care about
superfurry animals, And unless you were in Metallica or obsessed
with obscure European metal from the seventies, you had no
idea who Budgy was. But he totally should check out
the song Guts from their nineteen seventy one self titled
(19:03):
full length because it absolutely grews. But I digress. The
point is that Lost Profits, aside from actress Catherine Zeta Jones,
were the biggest thing to come out of South Wales
since Elizabeth Taylor's fifth and sixth husband Richard Burton, and
the authorities weren't especially interested in women making claims of
sexual abuse against their frontman until the evidence of Ian
(19:28):
Watkins's drug use became too obvious to ignore and authorities
were forced to raid his home on September twenty first,
twenty twelve. Ian Watkins's home in Pontyprid, South Wales, was raided.
It should be noted that police were acting not solely
on information, if at all, from Joanne Magleick's. Instead, they're
(19:49):
acting on a drug warrant. Nonetheless, when they found Ian
Watkins's laptop inside of his home, the intelligence officers who
eventually cracked into it did so by typing in the
password I kids, We'll be right back after this. We're we're, We're.
(20:21):
The contents of Ian Watkins's laptop confirmed Joanne Maglik's worst fears.
What authorities found was jarring and beyond belief, twenty seven
terabytes of data, including the most severe and extreme acts
of sexual abuse, babies and dogs being defiled, young children, fans,
(20:43):
a fourteen year old being sexually abused by Ian, split
screen footage of Ian and Phoebe molesting her infant child,
with Ian referring to them both as his slave duo.
By the end of twenty twelve, the singer of Lost
Prophets was arrested behind bars in Cardiff, Wales, an awaiting
(21:04):
trial on charges of conspiracy to engage in sexual activity
with a one year old, in possession and or distribution
of indecent images of children in extreme animal pornography. In
early twenty thirteen, incredibly, Joanne Majlis was also arrested as
the investigation into Ian Watkins expanded. With the news of
(21:26):
their frontman's arrest, Lost Profits issued a statement expressing that
no one in the band had any clue what Ian
Watkins was up to and that all were in a
state of shock over the revelation. Later that year, authorities
continued their investigation into Joanne, believing that the one time
girlfriend of Ian Watkins was guilty of similar crimes, when
(21:48):
in reality it was Joanne who had been trying to
get the police to investigate walkins. By July of twenty thirteen,
a trial date was set for Ian Watkins, but there
would be no time. Ian Watkins pleaded guilty to attempted
rape and sexual assault of a child under thirteen, but
not to rain. Authorities accepted the plea, incredibly, ignoring the
(22:13):
video evidence that literally showed Ian Watkins raping children again
a one year old. For his plea, Ian Waltkins received
a lighter sentence and in twenty thirteen was sent away
for a twenty nine year prison term with parole eligibility.
After eighteen years. In the year twenty thirty one, Brianna
(22:35):
and Phoebe were sentenced to fourteen and seventeen years, and
by my count, one of them will be released next year.
In twenty twenty seven. With Ian Watkins behind bars, authorities
then turned their attention fully to convicting joe An Maglick's who, incredibly,
up until a year prior, had been the one person
(22:56):
working hard to stop Ian Watkins's crimes. Joanne, in January
twenty fourteen, was formally charged with four counts of possession
of indecent images, two counts of distributing an indecent image,
and one count of encouraging another to distribute an indecent image.
Just before this, lost Prophets formally announced that they would
(23:19):
no longer continue as a band. Joyanne Maglix fought for
her freedom in court. She claimed that she kept any
illicit sexual imagery in her possession for which she was
being charged only in an attempt to gather evidence against
Ian Watkins, again for crimes that authorities at the time
seemed almost entirely disinterested in. In court, the evidence of
(23:43):
some pretty damning explicit online conversations between Joanne and Ian
came up and Joanne claimed she spoke that way to
play along with Ian in an effort to trap him.
The jury also heard about Joanne first going to authorities
in two thousand and eight. He also heard about Joanne
inquiring into the investigation again with authorities in two thousand
(24:05):
and nine, About Joanne writing to the Chief Constable of
the South Wales Police in twenty eleven, and how the
Chief Constable didn't offer any help, about the officer claiming
that the evidence that Joanne was then showing them, the
evidence that she was now being charged with being in
possession of, which was a video of Ian Watkins having
sex with a child, About how when she initially brought
(24:28):
that video to the police, that the police did nothing
about it because the police then believed that the girl
Ian Watkins was having sex with on video was of age.
But now the police were changing their tune. No, she
was a child, and you, joe Anne Majelix, had video
of sex with that child, so now we're trying to
put you in jail for it. Back then, when we
(24:50):
could have done something about stopping the man conducting the
rape on the video, we did nothing, and that man
was allowed to remain free and continue raping children. But
now we feel bad about all that, so we're saying
the exact opposite and trying to put you in prison,
because well, that's how life works sometimes when you're in
positions of authority and have to cover your ass. I
guess so sorry, Joanne. The jury was then told how
(25:10):
Joanne took the incredible step of dragging one of Ian
Watkins's accomplices, either be or P, Brianna or Phoebe, down
to the police headquarters herself and explained to the police
that she and Ian Watkins again be or P, not Joanna,
that be or P and Ian were planning on raping
her baby, and the cops essentially laughed the incident off,
(25:33):
saying to Joanne that Ian Watkins must have really upset you.
They could have arrested Joanne on the spot for attempted
murder because she replied, I'll put a bullet in his
head to stop him from doing it. After that, things
spiraled for Joanne. She overdosed numerous times. She even tried
(25:54):
faking her own death to put herself out of reach
from Ian Watkins. Still, she would not be denied. The
court heard about how even after all of this. In
twenty twelve, Joe Maagulis called Child Services to report Ian
Watkins's crimes. On January fourteenth, twenty fifteen, Joyne Magulix was
(26:16):
acquitted on all charges. She explained to the press that
the police were four years too late in their.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Quote, it's been me against the world, really me protecting
the kids when everyone else called me a liar, a psycho? Yea,
how many kids could have been saved if they'd have
done their job. I please don't want to believe a
local hero could be doing such terrific things. They've got
to think, Oh, it's a disgruntled ex partner, any excuse?
(26:43):
Lie after lie after lie.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
And Joyne went on to say I shouldn't be here
just for doing the police's job that they couldn't be
ours to do. She was right, and she was free,
and Ian Watkins was behind bars, and not just in
any old prison, and a prison that was as violent
and extreme as the images they found on Ian Watkins's laptop,
(27:11):
and justice, actual justice, the biblical kind, was about to
be served. The prison is older than most countries. It's
(27:50):
been housing Britain's worst of the worst since fifteen ninety four.
It's officially known as HM Prison, Wakefield, but unofficially everyone
one calls it the Monster Mansion because well, there's no
better way to describe its prisoners than with the word monster.
(28:11):
There was Harold Shipman aka Doctor Death, one of England's
most prolific serial killers. A disgraced doctor who, it's belief
murdered between two hundred and two hundred and fifty of
his patients. Shipman killed his unsuspecting patients, mostly little old ladies,
with lethal injections of heroin. His motives are still unclear,
(28:33):
but most believe he killed because the women reminded him
of his own mother. After being found guilty in the
year two thousand, he was sentenced to life in prison
and transferred to the Monster Mansion in two thousand and three.
Six months later, he killed himself. And there was Ian Huntley,
one of the UK's most despised killers. He murdered two
(28:57):
ten year old girls and then tried burning their bodies
to hide the evidence. The search for the two missing
girls was national news. Ian's arrest made him infamous. Immediately
upon arriving at the Monster Mansion to serve his forty
year sentence, he became a target of other prisoners, prisoners
who couldn't truck with a criminal, a famous one, especially
(29:19):
who abused young kids. They grabbed Ian Huntley in the
hospital wing of the prison, held him down, and doused
him with scalding hot, boiling water. You could hear a
quick blast of burning, curdling flesh. Huntley was badly injured,
but he survived. He also survived another attack afterward, this
one a quick slash to the neck with a shive
(29:41):
made out of a razor and a toothbrush. Huntley's attacker
was a man named Damien Folks, a prisoner who had
already killed another child murderer in a separate prison attack.
Ian Huntley survived that attack too, but eventually his number
came due in the Monster Mansion. On February twenty six,
twenty twenty six, while at work in the recycling wing
(30:03):
of the prison, Ian Huntley felt his brain bashing in
from the blunt force trauma of a three foot spiked
metal pole being swung violently from behind by fellow inmate
Anthony Russell. He bashed and bashed and bashed away at
Ian Humley's skull until he and Humtley were surrounded by blood.
When he was done, he screamed out, I've done it.
(30:25):
His exclamation met with a round of cheers from the
other inmates. Then there was Robert Maudsley aka Hannibal the Cannibal,
England's very own Hannibal Lecter. Maudsley is falsely said to
have eaten the brains of his victims, thus the Hannibal
Lecter comparison, but this is untrue. All Maudsley did was
(30:47):
bludgeon one of his victims to death and left his
body with a spoon sticking out of his crushed skull.
He did this after being sentenced to the Monster Mansion
to a fellow prisoner and for his crime and for
the explosive violence that this prisoner was known for. Robert
Maudsley was placed in solitary confinement in a cell made
of plexiglass that looks eerily similar to the one Anthony
(31:10):
Hopkins's character in Silence of the Lambs occupies. But that's
where the similarities between Robert Maudsley and Hannibal Lecter end.
Maudsley killed four men on the outside for different reasons
than the actual Hannibal the Cannibal killed. Maudsley did it
out of a sense of vengeance. The men he was
convicted of murdering were pedophiles, and the too many murdered
(31:32):
in prison, including the one he left with a spoon
sticking out of his skull, were convicted child abusers. Robert
Maudsley remains locked up in the Monster Mansion in solitary
confinement for fear of what he'll do to his fellow prisoners,
particularly the child molesters. The Monster Mansion has another nickname,
(31:55):
Peto Palace due to the maximum security prison's high concentration
of sex offenders. Nearly two thirds of its population are
there for sex crimes. The prisoners who aren't sex offenders
are keenly aware of the prisoners who are, and most
are hell bent on executing violent vengeance, especially in the
(32:16):
past few years. Since twenty twenty five, there has been
a seventy two percent rise in violence at the Monster Mansion.
As in most prisons, there is a hierarchy. At the
Monster Mansion. Pedophiles are considered the scum of the earth,
the lowest of the low. Many of the convicted sex
offenders are held in what are called vulnerable prison units
(32:37):
for their own protection, separated from the rest of the
criminal population. It is believed that if held in standard
wings with other prisoners that within time they'll be murdered.
This is where Ian Watkins was held. However, even though
he was housed in a vulnerable prison unit, mixing with
the other prisoners from the general population was inevitable. Ian
(33:01):
Watkins needed to use the phone. The other prisoners sneered,
but there was little they could do. The guards were
on them, eyes like hawks at the phone bank. Most
of the other prisoners knew Ian Watkins's game. He had
women calling him regularly, and not just any women, not angry,
(33:21):
aggrieved xys and girlfriends looking for answers on how to
make it on the outside. Now, Ian Watkins was an
ex rock star. He had groupies calling him and blowing
him up in his ear, promising him all kinds of
pleasures orally satiating him sexually, and the other prisoners hated
him for it. They also hated him for what he
(33:43):
did to those kids. Babies, they said, babies. The women
on the other end of the phone listened as Ian
explained that he didn't understand what the big deal was
this whole thing with the child abuse, that it was
all just megaloles, something to laugh about Ian Watkins's fellow
prisoners weren't laughing, not when they learned that Watkins had
(34:05):
amassed a tranche of love letters in his cell from
women on the outside, still eager to connect with the
disgraced front man. They also learned that Watkins had somehow
gotten his hands on a cell phone and was in
regular contact with many of these women on the outside.
This was the action that they wanted in on, or
so Ian Watkins claimed. When the guards found his phone
(34:26):
buried in his asshole after a search, Watkins claimed his
fellow inmates were forcing him to connect them with his groupies.
This was never proven, but it was one more mark
against Ian Watkins, the dead man walking. Ian Watkins, not
(34:46):
only because of his crimes, but because of the attention
from the women on the outside, because of the way
he carried himself, because of his unrepentant attitude, was despised
as a prisoner. Prisoners, actually those of means like Ian Watkins,
will often pay for protection on the inside. In Watkins's case,
the prisoners who could protect him the violent street gangsters,
(35:10):
the organized crime members, the drug kingpins. They hated Ian
Walkins so much that they just took his money and
refused to protect him. And what was he, the wormy
little ex rock star, going to do about it? He
was tormented daily. Every interaction with a fellow inmate was
caused for some sort of verbal abuse. It was only
a matter of time, they said, and that time came.
(35:33):
In twenty twenty three. Ian Watkins lay alone on his
cot and his cell. Three men entered slowly. Ian Watkins
wasn't going anywhere they wanted it. All money, Ian was
rich drugs, Ian was still using women. Ian had a
lion on groupies. But Ian Watkins, in reality, had none
(35:56):
of those things. And the men beat him sense listen
took a toilet brush they'd shaved down into a point
and stabbed him in the side. They didn't stop there,
and the beating continued, fists, feet, screams. Then the prison
siren guards and riot gear shooting stun grenades into the
cell to break up the beating. Ian Watkins was alive,
(36:19):
barely treated for his wounds, and quickly released back into
the pedal wing, but he wouldn't be safe for long.
October eleventh, twenty twenty five. They called it the Monster Mansion,
but for Ian Watkins, they may as well have dubbed
it Fear City, because the fear was now all he knew,
(36:43):
and there was no more fame and no more money,
and there weren't even any more women to connect with.
It was just one second after the other, one second
after the other of constant fear. When was the next
attack coming? And from where? Who it came from? Did nothing?
(37:22):
And there it was justice the final attack. Ian Watkins,
singer of Lost Prophets, the convicted pedophile, lay dead on
the floor of the Monster Mansion, stabbed to death in
a surprise attack by two fellow monsters. Mega lolls, Mega disgrace.
(37:45):
I'm Jake Brennan, and this this Disgrace Land. All right, guys,
thanks for hanging out for this episode of Disgraceland. This
is a tough one, this Ian Walkins story. And the
(38:07):
question of the week for this week is does this
story about Ian Waltkins and all the deprevity? Is this
the story that just upsets you the most of any rockstar,
true crime, music history, true crime story that you've heard.
Is this the one that just revolts you entirely more
(38:30):
than any other one? Let me know? Six one seven
nine oh six six six three eight voicemail and text.
Consider some of those early episodes of Disgraceland on Jerry V.
Lewis Big Lurch. Perhaps I don't know this bunch. You
can get into them. Let me know, let's talk about them. Voicemails,
text dms at disgrace lampod, email disgrace lampod at gmail
(38:51):
dot com. I get to get out of here. Here
comes from credits. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly. It
is produced in partnership with Double Elvis, The Exactly Right Network,
and iHeart Podcasts. The credits for this episode can be
found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
(39:13):
you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it, and
if not, you can become a member right now by
going to disgracelampod dot com slash Membership members can listen
to every episode of disgracelan ad, free, rate and review
the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and
Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com
(39:33):
slash at disgracelampod rock Arolla. He then man
This episode contains content that may be disturbing to some listeners.
Please check the show notes for more information. Disgraceland is
a production of Double Elvis. The story about Ian Watkins
(00:23):
from Lost Prophets. It might be the most disturbing story
that I've come across in all of my music history research.
It involves the sexual abuse of children and at its core,
a monstrous abuse of power and fame. But as is
the case with a lot of great stories, an unlikely
hero emerges in this one one who authorities ignored in
(00:46):
favor of protecting their own, one who authorities laughed off
in order to preserve some hometown pride, and one who
may have saved countless children from the designs of a monster.
A monster, Ian Watkins from a band Lost Prophets, who
made music not particularly interesting music by my ears, and
(01:08):
certainly not great music, similar in its lack of greatness
to the music that I played for you at the
top of this show. That wasn't great music either. That
was a preset loop for my melotron called Richard Burton's
Monster Mash MK two. I played you that loop because
I can't afford the rights to we are never ever
getting back together, And why would I play you that
(01:31):
specific slice of pre Travis Cheese? Could I afford it?
Because that was the number one song in America on
September twenty one, twenty twelve, and that was the day
that Ian Watkins was arrested, an event that revealed to
everyone the depths of this rock stars depravity depraved behavior
(01:51):
so dark and so extreme that to this day it's
still hard to understand Ian Watkins's life is a rock
star wound up with him doing time in one of
the world's most notorious prisons, a place that housed serial killers,
a place that suited Ian Watkins because it was a
place that they called the Monster Mansion. On this episode
(02:17):
Depravity Abuse, the Monster Mansion, an unlikely hero and a
new metal monster, Ian Watkins from Lost Prophets. I'm Jake
Brennan and this is disgrace Land. It's hard to know
(03:01):
what Ian Watkins, singer of the Welsh new metal band
Lost Prophets, knew or understood about the effects of giving
cocaine to an infant baby. There was, and understandably is,
little information to be found on the subject. You can
find plenty of data about the effects of babies who
were born addicted to cocaine from prenatal use of the
(03:23):
drug by their mothers. These effects include lower birth rate,
smaller head circumference, neurological impairment, and congenital heart defects. But,
like I said, little can be found on what kind
of effects infants demonstrate when given cocaine after birth, because
who would do such a thing Only a monster. Ian
(03:45):
Watkins was this exact type of monster, and he was
hell bent on doing this exact type of atrocious thing.
The question of whether or not cocaine would cause the
infant to behave in a way that would enhance the
sex was what Ian was determined to find out that
he needed to know, and to find out he needed
(04:06):
a baby. Finding a baby would not be a problem,
not for Ian Watkins, because for Ian Watkins there were women,
lots of women, fans of lost prophets, many of them
young mothers who would do anything for the black clad
front man with the shock of angular email bangs that
they all soooned over, and for some this meant agreeing
(04:29):
to give up their children for unspeakable acts of depravity.
These women agreed to do so in the letters that
they wrote to Ian Watkins in their emails and in
their DMS discussions with one woman in particular, detailed the
various ways in which she and the front man were
going to sexually abuse her ten month old son. These
(04:50):
messages are too disturbing to repeat, but just imagine the
literal worst harm a sexual predator can unleash upon an infant,
and you'll be in the ballpark. And if you absolutely
need to know, you can search the text of case
number sixty two CAA, linked from the show notes page
on our website. But I wouldn't advise that explaining this
(05:13):
behavior is nearly impossible, but at least some of it
can be chalked up to the twisted fascination that some
women had with Ian Watkins, who was a bonafide rock
star and during the early and mid odds, Lost Prophets
won a slew of UK music awards, including Best Band
from Kerrang and Best Metal Act from NME. The band
(05:35):
had four top ten albums on the UK album charts,
and it crossed over onto the alternative American charts with
their two thousand and four hit Last Trained Home. By
twenty eleven, Lost Profits had sold nearly four million albums
and Ian Watkins's vocals, stage presence and dark and mysterious
persona were big reasons why. Picture big chunky, corn like
(05:59):
metal rips and high energy UK punk paste energy and
emo vocals sung and screamed by a front man with
looks that many women considered handsome, dressed in low slung
girl jeans, white belt, in tight black T shirt and
an even tighter skull choker clinched around his neck. That
was Ian Watkins that was lost profits at the moment
(06:22):
sometime around two thousand and eight, that dude Ian Watkins
wasn't on stage. Instead, he was in a dark drug
den of his own making, littered with the paraphernalia needed
to ingest the wide array of drugs Watkins indulged in
on a regular basis. The spoon and syringe for the
heroine that he not only injected into himself, but injected
(06:45):
into lovers as a manifestation of his sexual aggression. For
the cocaine, there were the bendles and the dirty dollar
bills strewn about to snort the stimulant which fueled the
singer's craving to push his sexual boundaries. And there was
the puki, the bubble oil burner, whatever you wanted to
call it. It was used to smoke crystal mess. And
(07:05):
then there were the grimy cups with their insides poked
with hardened crystals from mostly dissolved GHB, the drug that
Walkins used to fuel his near constant quest for euphoria.
All of it defined how Ian Walkins spent his days
in between gigs, high or chasing a high that would
(07:25):
supercharge his depraved sexual fantasies. At the moment, he had
a month's long plan to use cocaine to ply an
infant sexually so that he could Okay, so this is
uncharted territory for me as a storyteller. I'm not sure
how to spell out in the style of this podcast. Anyways,
the depths of Ian Watkins's crimes. So you're gonna have
(07:46):
to bear with me on the telling of this tale
as I proceed with caution. The truth of this particularly
disturbing part of the story, which is crucial to understanding
what Ian Watkins did and how he was eventually brought
to justice, is that, incredibly, the Lost Profits singer was
putting together a plan to rape an infant, and he
was going to use cocaine for reasons that I still
(08:09):
don't fully understand to help him do this, and the
cocaine wasn't just for him again, it was for the
infant to infants, actually two babies that belonged to two
different women, both fans of the Lost Profits singer, both
complicit in this crime. As for the more normal fans
of Lost Profits, in their defense, aside from a couple
(08:32):
shady interviews with the band in which Ian Watkins coyly
alludes to a darker side, there was little in the
band's history, both on and off record, that would point
to this type of behavior from the band's frontman. So
we can't point fingers at Ian Walkins's bandmates, and most don't.
Members of Lost Profits have gone on to continue their
careers in the music industry. One bass player, Stuart Richardson,
(08:56):
toured with Thursday last year, and Elon Rubin, who for
Lost Profits at one point, now plays in the Foo Fighters.
On stage, Lost Profits promoted a concept Ian called Megalles
lolls as in all the laugh out louds. It was
as stupid as it sounds, but yes, it took off.
(09:17):
By twenty ten, the Megalles catchphrase was synonymous with the
band itself. It meant I gathered to take nothing seriously,
a sort of millennial manifestation of new metal indifference, drug sex,
rock and roll and not giving a fuck. Lost Profits
performed in front of a giant Megalles banner at their
(09:38):
main stage appearances at the Retting and Leeds festivals in
twenty ten. They emblazoned T shirts with the catchphrase and
hawked them to their fans and giggle the phrase out
of their shit eating grins and interviews with the rock press.
The goal of Lost Profits was to obtain fame by
not giving a fuck, and the goal of their singer,
Ian Watkins, was to use that fame to con unspeakable
(10:01):
acts of sexual abuse against miners and again. Two women,
two fans, were working with Ian Watkins, the rock star,
to devise a plan to use cocaine to help him
rape their infant children. I use the word rock star
intentionally because Ian Watkins knew that without his rock star status,
(10:23):
none of the depravity he hoped to achieve would be possible.
(10:57):
The identities of the two women who conspire tired with
Ian Watkins are still unknown. Their identities are kept secret,
primarily to protect the anonymity of their children. Who are
the victims here? These two mothers, essentially groupies of Ian Watkins,
are known only as B in p B as in
(11:17):
Brianna and P as in Phoebe, which is what we're
going to call them for the purposes of this episode,
Brianna and Phoebe. Before Brianna and Phoebe and the planned
sexual abuse of their babies, there were other girls, other groupies,
other victims, sixteen year olds, one whom the courts called
t T and another was kJ. T T was just sixteen,
(11:41):
a vergin. Ian Watkins dressed her up in a schoolgirl uniform.
Court documents detailed the video he made of himself degrading
TT after taking her virginity with extreme acts of sexual violence.
As for kJ, the court docs are not any less graphic.
kJ All sixteen was plied sexually by Ian Watkins with cocaine.
(12:04):
As with TT, the act was captured on video. Degrading
children sexually was a pattern that Ian Watkins evidently established
back in two thousand and eight. But back to Brianna
and Phoebe. Ian Watkins met Brianna in twenty eleven, and
I have to jump ahead here in the story to
clear something up as this story progresses, you will hear
(12:26):
how the monster, Ian Watkins was eventually caught, charged, convicted,
and served justice. Now there is no mystery to how
this story ends, but it needs to be said now
that Ian Watkins was officially convicted of conspiring to sexually
assault children. However, the video detailed in the official court
documents proves that Ian Watkins absolutely, one hundred percent did
(12:52):
indeed sexually assault children, including a baby Brianna's baby boy,
who she brought to the ky West Hotel in London
on April second, twenty twelve and presented to Ian Watkins
for the purposes of sex. The horrific abuse that followed
was discovered on video. As for Phoebe, court documents reveal
(13:14):
text messages with Phoebe pledging hers and her baby daughter's
lives to Ian Watkins. After Watkins texted Phoebe, if you
belong to me, so does your baby. Phoebe responded with understandable.
A mother daughter slave duo worshiping you. Watkins replied with
that's all she'll know, a life of filth. The text
(13:37):
thread then devolves into the rock star and the groupie
discussing the merits of fallatio with infants, using drugs to
ease the sexual friction with infants and forcing them into
acts of best reality. The evidence incredibly extends beyond conspiring
to actual photographic images and Skype video of Phoebe abusing
(14:00):
her daughter for the pleasure of Ian Watkins. The events
I just described took place in twenty twelve, but back
in two thousand and eight, Ian Walkins girlfriend at the time,
Joanne Magelix, discovered that the rock star she was dating
was sick in a way that was beyond belief. The
saga with Joanne started back in two thousand and six
(14:23):
with the DM you Up. Not only was Joanne up,
Joanne was down. She was infatuated with Ian Watkins from
Lost Prophets, so being on the receiving end of a
direct message from him was just about the most thrilling
thing that could have happened to the twenty nine year
old from Doncaster in South Yorkshire back in two thousand
and six, and Joanne quickly fell for Ian. A relationship began,
(14:48):
but it wasn't long before her new famous rock star
boyfriends depravity became clear to her. Sometime around two thousand
and eight, Ian Walkins told Joanna Maagelix that he was
going to rape a base be of an obsessed fan,
saying that his fans would allow him to do this,
that they would quote do anything for him. It was
(15:09):
in December of two thousand and eight when Joanne went
to police in South Wales and reported her famous boyfriend,
but she didn't leave him and nothing happened. In April
two thousand and nine, Joanne went back to South Wales
authorities to inquire about the investigation. She was told by
police that any investigation into the local frontman Ian Wontkins
(15:29):
for sexual assault upon children had been dropped. By twenty ten,
Ian Watkins had shown Joanne abhorrent videos of children and
animals being abused sexually. It is believed that it was
sometime in and around these events when Joanne left Ian
but maintained some contact in order to gather evidence against him.
(15:51):
It was Joanne's contention that if Welsh authorities weren't going
to do anything about the monster fronting lost profits, then
she would have to do it on her own. In
twenty eleven, Joanne emailed the Association of Chief Police Officers
to allege that Watkins was raping a child and Joanne
also contends that in twenty eleven, she kept up efforts
(16:11):
to gather evidence from me and Watkins, playing the part
of the co conspirator with him. In one text to
Watkins from that year, she wrote, part of me feels
you get off on showing me stuff you can get
away with, knowing that is what I've wanted since forever.
Joanne signed off on another message to Union child Molesters
till we die again. Joanne Magulix contends that this behavior
(16:37):
was done in some sort of undercover effort to bring
forth more evidence against Ian Watkins. It should be noted
again that prior to these texts, Joanne had already gone
to the police numerous times and was essentially ignored. Police
later claimed their indifference towards Joanne's allegations was due to
the fact that Joanne once made money as a sex worker.
(16:58):
Police believed that Joanne was a spurn lover and that
her allegations against the local rock star were fabricated because
he had upset her. One officer said to Joanne, he
must really have upset you. But Joanne wouldn't be denied.
She pressed on. She filmed herself opening images on her
(17:18):
laptop that Ian Watkins had sent to her graphic images
of a girl under sixteen being abused, and she brought
those to the police. Still, incredibly, the police did nothing.
They claimed the girl in the video was of age.
How the hell would they know? Why didn't the authorities
(17:38):
at least investigate the video further to confirm the age
of the girl in the video. Joanne didn't know the
answer to that, so she took it a step further.
In the fall of twenty twelve, Joanne Magelix got wind
of Ian Watkins's plan with one of the mothers. He
was conspiring with, either Brianna or Phoebe, and this time
(17:58):
Joanne called a different set of authorities, Child Services, to
understand the wall the joym Majelicks repeatedly ran into with
their efforts to bring attention to Ian Watkins's crimes. You
have to understand what Ian Watkins's band Lost Profits meant
to the city of Cardiff into South Wales. Lost Prophets
(18:20):
were hometown heroes. They were a band on the rise
and there was no ceiling in sight. They sold millions
of records and their faces were all over the television
in the UK videos, interviews, festival appearances and seemingly NonStop
appearances at music awards shows. Lost Profits were an immense
source of pride for their hometown. Aside from superfurry animals
(18:42):
or Budgy. Bands of Consequence didn't really come out of
South Wales, and unless you were part of a super
niche subset of nineties britpop, you didn't really care about
superfurry animals, And unless you were in Metallica or obsessed
with obscure European metal from the seventies, you had no
idea who Budgy was. But he totally should check out
the song Guts from their nineteen seventy one self titled
(19:03):
full length because it absolutely grews. But I digress. The
point is that Lost Profits, aside from actress Catherine Zeta Jones,
were the biggest thing to come out of South Wales
since Elizabeth Taylor's fifth and sixth husband Richard Burton, and
the authorities weren't especially interested in women making claims of
sexual abuse against their frontman until the evidence of Ian
(19:28):
Watkins's drug use became too obvious to ignore and authorities
were forced to raid his home on September twenty first,
twenty twelve. Ian Watkins's home in Pontyprid, South Wales, was raided.
It should be noted that police were acting not solely
on information, if at all, from Joanne Magleick's. Instead, they're
(19:49):
acting on a drug warrant. Nonetheless, when they found Ian
Watkins's laptop inside of his home, the intelligence officers who
eventually cracked into it did so by typing in the
password I kids, We'll be right back after this. We're we're, We're.
(20:21):
The contents of Ian Watkins's laptop confirmed Joanne Maglik's worst fears.
What authorities found was jarring and beyond belief, twenty seven
terabytes of data, including the most severe and extreme acts
of sexual abuse, babies and dogs being defiled, young children, fans,
(20:43):
a fourteen year old being sexually abused by Ian, split
screen footage of Ian and Phoebe molesting her infant child,
with Ian referring to them both as his slave duo.
By the end of twenty twelve, the singer of Lost
Prophets was arrested behind bars in Cardiff, Wales, an awaiting
(21:04):
trial on charges of conspiracy to engage in sexual activity
with a one year old, in possession and or distribution
of indecent images of children in extreme animal pornography. In
early twenty thirteen, incredibly, Joanne Majlis was also arrested as
the investigation into Ian Watkins expanded. With the news of
(21:26):
their frontman's arrest, Lost Profits issued a statement expressing that
no one in the band had any clue what Ian
Watkins was up to and that all were in a
state of shock over the revelation. Later that year, authorities
continued their investigation into Joanne, believing that the one time
girlfriend of Ian Watkins was guilty of similar crimes, when
(21:48):
in reality it was Joanne who had been trying to
get the police to investigate walkins. By July of twenty thirteen,
a trial date was set for Ian Watkins, but there
would be no time. Ian Watkins pleaded guilty to attempted
rape and sexual assault of a child under thirteen, but
not to rain. Authorities accepted the plea, incredibly, ignoring the
(22:13):
video evidence that literally showed Ian Watkins raping children again
a one year old. For his plea, Ian Waltkins received
a lighter sentence and in twenty thirteen was sent away
for a twenty nine year prison term with parole eligibility.
After eighteen years. In the year twenty thirty one, Brianna
(22:35):
and Phoebe were sentenced to fourteen and seventeen years, and
by my count, one of them will be released next year.
In twenty twenty seven. With Ian Watkins behind bars, authorities
then turned their attention fully to convicting joe An Maglick's who, incredibly,
up until a year prior, had been the one person
(22:56):
working hard to stop Ian Watkins's crimes. Joanne, in January
twenty fourteen, was formally charged with four counts of possession
of indecent images, two counts of distributing an indecent image,
and one count of encouraging another to distribute an indecent image.
Just before this, lost Prophets formally announced that they would
(23:19):
no longer continue as a band. Joyanne Maglix fought for
her freedom in court. She claimed that she kept any
illicit sexual imagery in her possession for which she was
being charged only in an attempt to gather evidence against
Ian Watkins, again for crimes that authorities at the time
seemed almost entirely disinterested in. In court, the evidence of
(23:43):
some pretty damning explicit online conversations between Joanne and Ian
came up and Joanne claimed she spoke that way to
play along with Ian in an effort to trap him.
The jury also heard about Joanne first going to authorities
in two thousand and eight. He also heard about Joanne
inquiring into the investigation again with authorities in two thousand
(24:05):
and nine, About Joanne writing to the Chief Constable of
the South Wales Police in twenty eleven, and how the
Chief Constable didn't offer any help, about the officer claiming
that the evidence that Joanne was then showing them, the
evidence that she was now being charged with being in
possession of, which was a video of Ian Watkins having
sex with a child, About how when she initially brought
(24:28):
that video to the police, that the police did nothing
about it because the police then believed that the girl
Ian Watkins was having sex with on video was of age.
But now the police were changing their tune. No, she
was a child, and you, joe Anne Majelix, had video
of sex with that child, so now we're trying to
put you in jail for it. Back then, when we
(24:50):
could have done something about stopping the man conducting the
rape on the video, we did nothing, and that man
was allowed to remain free and continue raping children. But
now we feel bad about all that, so we're saying
the exact opposite and trying to put you in prison,
because well, that's how life works sometimes when you're in
positions of authority and have to cover your ass. I
guess so sorry, Joanne. The jury was then told how
(25:10):
Joanne took the incredible step of dragging one of Ian
Watkins's accomplices, either be or P, Brianna or Phoebe, down
to the police headquarters herself and explained to the police
that she and Ian Watkins again be or P, not Joanna,
that be or P and Ian were planning on raping
her baby, and the cops essentially laughed the incident off,
(25:33):
saying to Joanne that Ian Watkins must have really upset you.
They could have arrested Joanne on the spot for attempted
murder because she replied, I'll put a bullet in his
head to stop him from doing it. After that, things
spiraled for Joanne. She overdosed numerous times. She even tried
(25:54):
faking her own death to put herself out of reach
from Ian Watkins. Still, she would not be denied. The
court heard about how even after all of this. In
twenty twelve, Joe Maagulis called Child Services to report Ian
Watkins's crimes. On January fourteenth, twenty fifteen, Joyne Magulix was
(26:16):
acquitted on all charges. She explained to the press that
the police were four years too late in their.
Speaker 2 (26:21):
Quote, it's been me against the world, really me protecting
the kids when everyone else called me a liar, a psycho? Yea,
how many kids could have been saved if they'd have
done their job. I please don't want to believe a
local hero could be doing such terrific things. They've got
to think, Oh, it's a disgruntled ex partner, any excuse?
(26:43):
Lie after lie after lie.
Speaker 1 (26:46):
And Joyne went on to say I shouldn't be here
just for doing the police's job that they couldn't be
ours to do. She was right, and she was free,
and Ian Watkins was behind bars, and not just in
any old prison, and a prison that was as violent
and extreme as the images they found on Ian Watkins's laptop,
(27:11):
and justice, actual justice, the biblical kind, was about to
be served. The prison is older than most countries. It's
(27:50):
been housing Britain's worst of the worst since fifteen ninety four.
It's officially known as HM Prison, Wakefield, but unofficially everyone
one calls it the Monster Mansion because well, there's no
better way to describe its prisoners than with the word monster.
(28:11):
There was Harold Shipman aka Doctor Death, one of England's
most prolific serial killers. A disgraced doctor who, it's belief
murdered between two hundred and two hundred and fifty of
his patients. Shipman killed his unsuspecting patients, mostly little old ladies,
with lethal injections of heroin. His motives are still unclear,
(28:33):
but most believe he killed because the women reminded him
of his own mother. After being found guilty in the
year two thousand, he was sentenced to life in prison
and transferred to the Monster Mansion in two thousand and three.
Six months later, he killed himself. And there was Ian Huntley,
one of the UK's most despised killers. He murdered two
(28:57):
ten year old girls and then tried burning their bodies
to hide the evidence. The search for the two missing
girls was national news. Ian's arrest made him infamous. Immediately
upon arriving at the Monster Mansion to serve his forty
year sentence, he became a target of other prisoners, prisoners
who couldn't truck with a criminal, a famous one, especially
(29:19):
who abused young kids. They grabbed Ian Huntley in the
hospital wing of the prison, held him down, and doused
him with scalding hot, boiling water. You could hear a
quick blast of burning, curdling flesh. Huntley was badly injured,
but he survived. He also survived another attack afterward, this
one a quick slash to the neck with a shive
(29:41):
made out of a razor and a toothbrush. Huntley's attacker
was a man named Damien Folks, a prisoner who had
already killed another child murderer in a separate prison attack.
Ian Huntley survived that attack too, but eventually his number
came due in the Monster Mansion. On February twenty six,
twenty twenty six, while at work in the recycling wing
(30:03):
of the prison, Ian Huntley felt his brain bashing in
from the blunt force trauma of a three foot spiked
metal pole being swung violently from behind by fellow inmate
Anthony Russell. He bashed and bashed and bashed away at
Ian Humley's skull until he and Humtley were surrounded by blood.
When he was done, he screamed out, I've done it.
(30:25):
His exclamation met with a round of cheers from the
other inmates. Then there was Robert Maudsley aka Hannibal the Cannibal,
England's very own Hannibal Lecter. Maudsley is falsely said to
have eaten the brains of his victims, thus the Hannibal
Lecter comparison, but this is untrue. All Maudsley did was
(30:47):
bludgeon one of his victims to death and left his
body with a spoon sticking out of his crushed skull.
He did this after being sentenced to the Monster Mansion
to a fellow prisoner and for his crime and for
the explosive violence that this prisoner was known for. Robert
Maudsley was placed in solitary confinement in a cell made
of plexiglass that looks eerily similar to the one Anthony
(31:10):
Hopkins's character in Silence of the Lambs occupies. But that's
where the similarities between Robert Maudsley and Hannibal Lecter end.
Maudsley killed four men on the outside for different reasons
than the actual Hannibal the Cannibal killed. Maudsley did it
out of a sense of vengeance. The men he was
convicted of murdering were pedophiles, and the too many murdered
(31:32):
in prison, including the one he left with a spoon
sticking out of his skull, were convicted child abusers. Robert
Maudsley remains locked up in the Monster Mansion in solitary
confinement for fear of what he'll do to his fellow prisoners,
particularly the child molesters. The Monster Mansion has another nickname,
(31:55):
Peto Palace due to the maximum security prison's high concentration
of sex offenders. Nearly two thirds of its population are
there for sex crimes. The prisoners who aren't sex offenders
are keenly aware of the prisoners who are, and most
are hell bent on executing violent vengeance, especially in the
(32:16):
past few years. Since twenty twenty five, there has been
a seventy two percent rise in violence at the Monster Mansion.
As in most prisons, there is a hierarchy. At the
Monster Mansion. Pedophiles are considered the scum of the earth,
the lowest of the low. Many of the convicted sex
offenders are held in what are called vulnerable prison units
(32:37):
for their own protection, separated from the rest of the
criminal population. It is believed that if held in standard
wings with other prisoners that within time they'll be murdered.
This is where Ian Watkins was held. However, even though
he was housed in a vulnerable prison unit, mixing with
the other prisoners from the general population was inevitable. Ian
(33:01):
Watkins needed to use the phone. The other prisoners sneered,
but there was little they could do. The guards were
on them, eyes like hawks at the phone bank. Most
of the other prisoners knew Ian Watkins's game. He had
women calling him regularly, and not just any women, not angry,
(33:21):
aggrieved xys and girlfriends looking for answers on how to
make it on the outside. Now, Ian Watkins was an
ex rock star. He had groupies calling him and blowing
him up in his ear, promising him all kinds of
pleasures orally satiating him sexually, and the other prisoners hated
him for it. They also hated him for what he
(33:43):
did to those kids. Babies, they said, babies. The women
on the other end of the phone listened as Ian
explained that he didn't understand what the big deal was
this whole thing with the child abuse, that it was
all just megaloles, something to laugh about Ian Watkins's fellow
prisoners weren't laughing, not when they learned that Watkins had
(34:05):
amassed a tranche of love letters in his cell from
women on the outside, still eager to connect with the
disgraced front man. They also learned that Watkins had somehow
gotten his hands on a cell phone and was in
regular contact with many of these women on the outside.
This was the action that they wanted in on, or
so Ian Watkins claimed. When the guards found his phone
(34:26):
buried in his asshole after a search, Watkins claimed his
fellow inmates were forcing him to connect them with his groupies.
This was never proven, but it was one more mark
against Ian Watkins, the dead man walking. Ian Watkins, not
(34:46):
only because of his crimes, but because of the attention
from the women on the outside, because of the way
he carried himself, because of his unrepentant attitude, was despised
as a prisoner. Prisoners, actually those of means like Ian Watkins,
will often pay for protection on the inside. In Watkins's case,
the prisoners who could protect him the violent street gangsters,
(35:10):
the organized crime members, the drug kingpins. They hated Ian
Walkins so much that they just took his money and
refused to protect him. And what was he, the wormy
little ex rock star, going to do about it? He
was tormented daily. Every interaction with a fellow inmate was
caused for some sort of verbal abuse. It was only
a matter of time, they said, and that time came.
(35:33):
In twenty twenty three. Ian Watkins lay alone on his
cot and his cell. Three men entered slowly. Ian Watkins
wasn't going anywhere they wanted it. All money, Ian was
rich drugs, Ian was still using women. Ian had a
lion on groupies. But Ian Watkins, in reality, had none
(35:56):
of those things. And the men beat him sense listen
took a toilet brush they'd shaved down into a point
and stabbed him in the side. They didn't stop there,
and the beating continued, fists, feet, screams. Then the prison
siren guards and riot gear shooting stun grenades into the
cell to break up the beating. Ian Watkins was alive,
(36:19):
barely treated for his wounds, and quickly released back into
the pedal wing, but he wouldn't be safe for long.
October eleventh, twenty twenty five. They called it the Monster Mansion,
but for Ian Watkins, they may as well have dubbed
it Fear City, because the fear was now all he knew,
(36:43):
and there was no more fame and no more money,
and there weren't even any more women to connect with.
It was just one second after the other, one second
after the other of constant fear. When was the next
attack coming? And from where? Who it came from? Did nothing?
(37:22):
And there it was justice the final attack. Ian Watkins,
singer of Lost Prophets, the convicted pedophile, lay dead on
the floor of the Monster Mansion, stabbed to death in
a surprise attack by two fellow monsters. Mega lolls, Mega disgrace.
(37:45):
I'm Jake Brennan, and this this Disgrace Land. All right, guys,
thanks for hanging out for this episode of Disgraceland. This
is a tough one, this Ian Walkins story. And the
(38:07):
question of the week for this week is does this
story about Ian Waltkins and all the deprevity? Is this
the story that just upsets you the most of any rockstar,
true crime, music history, true crime story that you've heard.
Is this the one that just revolts you entirely more
(38:30):
than any other one? Let me know? Six one seven
nine oh six six six three eight voicemail and text.
Consider some of those early episodes of Disgraceland on Jerry V.
Lewis Big Lurch. Perhaps I don't know this bunch. You
can get into them. Let me know, let's talk about them. Voicemails,
text dms at disgrace lampod, email disgrace lampod at gmail
(38:51):
dot com. I get to get out of here. Here
comes from credits. Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly. It
is produced in partnership with Double Elvis, The Exactly Right Network,
and iHeart Podcasts. The credits for this episode can be
found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
If you're listening as a Disgraceland All Access member, thank
(39:13):
you for supporting the show. We really appreciate it, and
if not, you can become a member right now by
going to disgracelampod dot com slash Membership members can listen
to every episode of disgracelan ad, free, rate and review
the show, and follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and
Facebook at disgracelampod and on YouTube at YouTube dot com
(39:33):
slash at disgracelampod rock Arolla. He then man
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