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Ian Watkins, singer jailed for sexually abusing children,
‘stabbed in prison’
Former Lostprophets frontman reportedly taken to hospital
after being held hostage by other inmates at HMP Wakefield
PA Media
Sun 6 Aug 2023 00.01 BST
He is said to have been taken to hospital after being stabbed at the prison in West Yorkshire.
A source told the Mirror he had been taken hostage by three other inmates on Saturday morning.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: “Police are investigating an incident which took place on Saturday at HMP Wakefield. We are unable to comment further while the police investigate.”
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.
Not surprisingly, hard drugs were involved!
He was arrested after the execution of a drugs warrant at his Pontypridd home on 21 September 2012 when a large number of computers, mobile phones and storage devices were seized.
Analysis of the equipment uncovered Watkins’ depraved behaviour.
Deputy head at Prince George’s old school jailed for 12 years
for online sexual abuse of children
Matthew Smith admitted ‘I don’t like the person I am’ after he was caught
ordering the sexual abuse of boys in India online
By Tristan Kirk, Courts Correspondent@kirkkorner
Evening Standard, Aug 9, 2023
Former deputy head at Prince George and Princess Charlotte’s first school has been jailed for 12 years for a catalogue of sexual abuse against young boys.
Smith was caught in November 2022, just a few months after he had been appointed as deputy head of pastoral care at Thomas’s prep school in Battersea.
Prince George and Princess Charlotte had spent their early years of education at the £20,000-a-year school before leaving in 2022 as the family moved to Berkshire.
Southwark crown court heard Smith was caught red-handed on his computer chatting to a boy in India when he was arrested at home in East Dulwich by the National Crime Agency, with dark web forums open and more than 120,000 indecent images of children on the device.
Passing sentence on Wednesday, Judge Martin Griffith said none of the offending had taken place in the UK or involved any children from the Battersea school.
“The heart of this case is your use of the Telegram chat system with people believed to be adults on the sub-continent”, he said.
“You were paying money - £67,000 – and asked them to provide images of the sexual abuse of young boys under 13.”
U.S. appeals court upholds Josh Duggar's conviction
for downloading child sex abuse images
Andrew Demillo, The Associated Press
Published Aug. 7, 2023 1:27 p.m. PDT
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. - A federal appeals court on Monday upheld Josh Duggar's conviction for downloading child sexual abuse images, rejecting the former reality television star's argument that a judge should have suppressed statements he made to investigators during the search that found the images.
Federal authorities investigated Duggar after Little Rock police detective found child sexual abuse material was being shared by a computer traced to Duggar. Investigators testified that images depicting the sexual abuse of children, including toddlers, were downloaded in 2019 onto a computer at a car dealership Duggar owned.
Duggar's attorneys argued that statements he made to investigators during the search of the dealership should not have been allowed at trial since his attorney wasn't present. Prosecutors said Duggar asked the agents, "`What is this all about? Has somebody been downloading child pornography?" and that he declined to say whether he had looked at such material online, comments that were later used as evidence in the trial.
The appeals panel said that although Duggar was read his rights, the agents questioning him made it clear that he wasn't in custody and was free to leave. The panel also noted that he wasn't arrested at the end of his questioning.
"To the contrary, he ended the interview on his own and then left the dealership -- hardly an option available to someone in custody," the court ruled.
Justin Gelfand, an attorney for Duggar, said they disagreed with the court's reasoning and would evaluate all options.
The court also dismissed Duggar's argument that his attorneys should have been able to ask about the prior sex-offense conviction of a former employee of the dealership who had used the same computer. Duggar's attorneys did not ask the former employee to testify after the judge ruled they could not mention the prior conviction.
The panel ruled that the judge in the case struck the right balance by allowing the former employee to be questioned without bringing up the past conviction. The court also rejected Duggar's challenge to the qualifications of the analyst who testified that metadata on the former reality star's iPhone connected him to the crime.
TLC cancelled "19 Kids and Counting" in 2015 following allegations that Duggar had molested four of his sisters and a babysitter years earlier. Authorities began investigating the abuse in 2006 after receiving a tip from a family friend but concluded that the statute of limitations on any possible charges had expired.
Duggar's parents said after the allegations resurfaced in 2015 that he had confessed to the fondling and apologized privately. Duggar then apologized publicly for unspecified behaviour and resigned as a lobbyist for the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. Months later, he also publicly apologized for cheating on his wife and admitted to having a pornography addiction, for which he then sought treatment.
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