Jury in Ian Watkins murder trial discharged - two prisoners to be re-tried

The jury in the trial of two prisoners accused of murdering paedophile Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins has been discharged for legal reasons.

Watkins was stabbed to death in his cell last year at HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire, where he was serving a 29-year sentence for child sex offences.

Prosecutors told a jury at Leeds Crown Court that Rico Gedel stabbed Watkins three times with a makeshift knife on 11 October, which he then passed to Samuel Dodsworth, who threw it in a bin.

The pair were both guilty of murder because Dodsworth "knew the attack was going to happen" and helped Gedel by disposing of the knife, prosecutors said.

The two serving prisoners, aged 25 and 44 respectively, denied murder and possessing a knife in prison.

On Friday, the judge, Mr Justice Hilliard, discharged the jury, telling them: "Very reluctantly, I'm going to discharge you and the case will have to be re-tried.

"That's disappointing for you and for everyone."

In his closing remarks to jurors on Monday, prosecutor Tom Storey KC said Watkins, 48, did "nothing whatsoever to provoke this attack in the time leading up to it".

"However heinous his crimes were, that did not justify his killing in any way."

The makeshift weapon was made of a Stanley knife stuck to a piece of plastic cutlery with large amounts of tape, jurors were told.

It was found in the prison bins, where it was disposed of by Dodsworth, the trial was told.

Watkins was jailed for 29 years in December 2013, with a further six years on licence, after admitting a string of sex offences, including the attempted rape of a fan's baby.

A retrial was scheduled to start in February.

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(c) Sky News 2026: Jury in Ian Watkins murder trial discharged - two prisoners to be re-tried