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A court hearing in Cardiff has today (18 December) heard how Ian Watkins of Lostprophets referred to his admission of child sex-abuse offences as 'megalols' in a phone conversation with a female friend.
Watkins was sentenced to a total of 35 years in prison. Read the full report here.
In a court report from Walesonline.co.uk, the Welsh publication revealed details of a phone conversation Watkins had the day after he admitted to being a paedophile in court.
"It was like either me go up there and say 'Come on, it wasn't that bad, nobody got hurt'. I do my charm or do I end up making things worse for myself or do I just say I was off my head and can't remember?" Watkins said during the conversation. "I'm going to put a statement on the 18th now just to say it was mega lols, I don't know what everyone is getting so freaked out about."
In a separate phone conversation, the court heard that he told a friend: "It's so hard. There's a lot of ****ing meaningless bull**** like chat that I did to show off when I was ****ing off my head.
"There was no medical evidence, nobody was harmed at all.
"I'm not a paedophile, I'm not. You know I plead (sic) guilty just to avoid a trial, not realising 'Hang on, that makes me look a bit guilty' but I would never harm anybody."
When quizzed by the court on whether he still believed his actions were 'megalols' now, Walesonline.co.uk report that he stated: "No, it's just lols now."
Last month, Watkins admitted charges of attempting to rape a baby, as well as the sexual assault of a child under 13. He also admitted three counts of sexual assault involving children and six involving taking, making and possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal. The court was told how Watkins had extreme illegal pornography on his computers, had boasted of wanting to blow meth smoke in a baby's face, and even filmed encounters he'd had with 16-year-old Lostprophets fans in school uniforms.
- Read the full report of his crimes and conviction here
The ex-girlfriend of Ian Watkins has spoken out about her attempts to warn police about his threats of child abuse. His former girlfriend Joanna Majic has told the Daily Mirror of her 'on-off' relationship with Watkins from 2006, but claims "everything changed for us when he confided in me that he wanted to abuse children in 2008."
Former-callgirl Majic, 28, continued: "I went straight to South Wales police then and made a complaint but they ignored me and said I needed evidence."
Meanwhile, an officer who investigated Ian Watkins' child sex abuse charges has been issued with 'gross misconduct' notices by a police watchdog. Back in February this year, the Independent Police Complaints Commission launched an investigation to ascertain whether or not South Wales Police acted quickly enough after receiving information about Watkins' abuse claims.
Now, the IPCC have revealed to NME that the investigation relates to an officer, tangled up in a separate event that involves the alleged rape of a 15-year-old girl.
"The IPCC investigation into whether or not South Wales Police failed to take appropriate and timely action in relation to information they were in receipt of in advance of Mr Watkins' subsequent arrest is ongoing," they said.
"We are considering matters dating back to 2008. At this stage the investigation is focused on the actions of one officer, a detective sergeant who is also being investigated in another case where it is alleged he failed to act on an allegation that a 15-year-old girl had been raped. That remains ongoing."
Watkins' remaining Lostprophets' bandmates announced their split earlier in the year, and following Watkins' admissions they issued a statement to express to fans their apologies and explaining they had no knowledge of Ian's behaviour. In the statement the band wrote, "Many of you understandably want to know if we knew what Ian was doing. To be clear: We did not. We knew that Ian was a difficult character. Our personal relationships with him had deteriorated in recent years to a point that working together was a constant, miserable challenge."
