A detective could be sacked for allowing rock star Ian Wakins to rape and abuse children for five years after they ignored repeated warnings he was a paedophile.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission has slammed South Wales Police because they failed to properly probe the Lostprophets singer, 38.
Watkins was jailed for 29 years in 2013 for child abuse but his ex-girlfriend Joanna Mjadzelics, 41, had first called Welsh social services about him in 2008.
Grooming: Watkins targeted superfans of his band the Lostprophets and would encourage them to allow him to abuse their children. Two women would later be jailed for offering their babies
In 2011 she emailed South Wales chief constable Peter Vaughan to say Watkins was raping children but detectives failed to act.
Later she was accused of possessing indecent images of a child, sending vile pictures to the singer and demanding that he send her illegal pornography. She was cleared in 2015.
‘HOW MANY KIDS COULD HAVE BEEN SAVED?’ MS MJADZELICS CLAIMS POLICE REPEATEDLY IGNORED HER ATTEMPTS TO REPORT THE LOSTPROPHET SINGER
In 2008 she contacted Pontypridd social services.
In January 2009 Ms Mjadzelics first contacted police about Watkins after he tells her about sex sessions with underage girls, rape and shows her indecent pictures – nothing happens.
In March 2009 she is interviewed by police but she claims the investigation was closed by May after she was dismissed by police as a ‘nut.’
In August 2010 she goes to police after Watkins shows her a video of a child being abused – nothing was done.
In May 2011 Mjadzelics sends an email to the Association of Chief Police Officers about Watkins.
In March 2012 she takes her laptop to the police station after becoming concerned about an online chat with the singer.
Ms Mjadzelics said she ‘went through hell’ after she was forced to take action herself because officers ‘couldn’t be a***d’ to investigate Watkins.
She told The Sun: ‘I was ignored by the police on multiple occasions. It is now clear that, had I been listened to, some children would not have come to harm at Watkins’ hands.
‘The police have a lot to learn about how they treat credible witnesses and victims of abuse.’
Watkins, 38, was convicted sex offences including the attempted rape of a fan’s baby. Two women were jailed alongside him for assisting his crimes.
The IPCC has carried out two investigations into how the force responded to reports and intelligence dating back to December 2008 made to South Wales Police (SWP) by either members of the public, Crimestoppers, or other police forces.
The IPCC investigator recommended a detective sergeant has a case to answer for gross misconduct and another for misconduct.
It alleged the officer did not take sufficient action – and treated allegations from a main witness as being ‘unfounded’.
The IPCC investigator said two detective constables have a case to answer for misconduct, as they did not ‘undertake all reasonable and practicable lines of enquiry.’
The officers were all based in Pontypridd, South Wales – the hometown of singer Watkins.
An IPCC spokesman said: ‘The IPCC submitted its investigation reports to SWP, and the force has agreed to take forward disciplinary proceedings against the detective sergeant and two detective constables.
IPCC Commissioner for Wales, Jan Williams, said: ‘We probed a substantial number of reports and allegations relating to Ian Watkins made over a four year period to establish exactly who knew what and when, and how police officers responded. This has been a complex process.
‘We aim to issue our fuller findings, including our examination of the wider organisational response of South Wales Police, following the conclusion of the misconduct proceedings currently being arranged by the force.’
Watkins allegedly told Ms Mjadzelics of how he would use the children of ‘superfans’ to fulfill his depraved fantasies.
According to Miss Mjadzelic, he said: ‘I’ve got all these superfans and they’re giving me their kids.’
Miss Mjadzelic also recalled how Watkins showed her a video of a child being raped ‘because he wanted a reaction’, and also how he told her about plans to drug and rape the child of one of his fans.
The fan, later known as Woman B, was later jailed alongside Watkins for child sex offences.
She said she was told about Watkins’ intentions towards her young son.
She said: ‘He’s told me that he wants to put GHB in his sippy cup and on his dummy and rape him.’
She said she went to the police again, this time in Doncaster, but was ignored. She said: ‘I’m telling them [police officers] he’s going to rape a baby a month before he does.’
During Ms Mjadzelics’ own trial she said she had risked jail to expose Watkins, and continued to sleep with him in order to gather more evidence for the police.
The court heard that she reported Watkins to the authorities in 2008, 2009, 2011 and 2012 to raise the alarm over his child sex crimes.
She told police he had sent her images of a ‘very young girl being raped’, but they refused to examine her phone or computer.
Michael Wolkind QC, defending, told jurors that police chose not to investigate the allegations against Watkins because he was a famous musician.
‘Babies could have been saved if Joanne had been taken seriously but Watkins was a famous rock star so it was different,’ he said.
‘She wasn’t believed and it wasn’t properly investigated. What was she supposed to do?
‘If she had not kept on seeing Watkins would he and the two mothers be locked up now? No. She desperately played along with Watkins to track him.
Late 2006: Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins meets Joanne Mjadzelics online. After weeks of online sex chats, Watkins and Mjadzelics meet in person for the first time in December. They meet up for sex at a hotel in Leeds where they make a sex tape together.
July 2007: Mjadzelics says she starts ‘getting into’ cocaine, with her and Watkins having drug-fuelled sex sessions together. She later has the rock singer’s initials – IDKW – tattooed on her back.
August 2007: Mjadzelics says Watkins tells her about a sex session he had with a 14-year-old girl. Asked why she did not go to the police there and then about his confession, she said: ‘I thought it was the cocaine talking.’
September 2007: Watkins tells Mjadzelics he raped a 12-year-old girl after taking cocaine in the toilet with her. He later tells her he was only ‘joking’.
February 2008: Tape of Watkins and Mjadzelics depicts the pair having sex and talking about having a child together so they could rape and kill it. When questioned about the video, Mjadzelics says: ‘It’s fantasy talk.’
Early 2008: Mjadzelics says she and Watkins split. She blames an indecent photograph of a child which he had sent her on Christmas Day.
June 2008: Watkins takes Mjadzelics to meet his mother in Pontypridd. The pair stay at the St David’s Hotel in Cardiff.
October 2008: Mjadzelics agrees to sign a ‘gagging order’ drawn up by Watkins after she threatened to go to the police.
December 2008: Mjadzelics phones social services in south Wales regarding a photograph he sent the previous Christmas.
January 2009: Mjadzelics contacts social services again, as well as police about Watkins.
March 2009: Police in Yorkshire interview Mjadzelics at the request of South Wales Police.
May 2009: The police investigation into Mjadzelics’s initial claims about Watkins ends. She claimed she was turned away because officers regarded her as a ‘nut job’ fan who was harassing a famous rock star.
August 2010: After around a year without speaking to one another, Mjadzelics and Watkins meet up for sex. Mjadzelics apologises to Watkins, claiming that she ‘must have got things so wrong’. Two weeks later, Mjadzelics says Watkins shows her a video of a child being sexually abused. She says she goes to police again, and claims nothing was done.
May 2011: After becoming estranged from one another again, Mjadzelics resumes contact with Watkins. She says she did so to try to catch Watkins out – and aimed to get evidence on him. The pair resume their sexual relationship. Watkins sends four indecent images to Mjadzelics.
May 2011: Mjadzelics sends an email to the Association of Chief Police Officers saying Watkins is raping a child on a ‘regular basis’. In her correspondence, she says: ‘I’ve gained his trust again by agreeing to a lot of disgusting things to get whatever is needed to bring him to justice.’
February 2012: Mjadzelics says she contacts the father of a child she fears Watkins was abusing.
March 2012: Mjadzelics says she contacts South Wales Police regarding a chat she had with Watkins on Skype. Mjadzelics attends Doncaster police station with her laptop.
April 2012: Watkins and a female fan, who cannot be named for legal reasons, sexually abuse her son at a London hotel.
May 2012: Over three months, South Yorkshire Police is contacted three times over allegations that Watkins is abusing a child.
August 2012: Watkins’s home is raided by police. One of the singer’s laptops is seized by detectives.
October 2012: Bedfordshire Police is contacted about allegations, supposedly made by Mjadzelics, that Watkins is planning to abuse another fan’s baby. Watkins is later interviewed and bailed by police.
November 2012: Mjadzelics is interviewed as a witness by officers from Operation Globe.
December 2012: Watkins is again arrested and charged by police. He appears before Cardiff Magistrates’ Court along with two female accomplices.
January 2013: Mjadzelics arrested and questioned.
November/December 2013: Watkins pleads guilty to a string of sex offences – including engaging in sexual activity with a child, the attempted rape of a fan’s baby and possessing, making and distributing indecent images. He is given a 29-year jail term, with a further six years on licence. His two female accomplices also plead guilty and receive prison terms.
May 2014: The Independent Police Complaints Commission confirms it is investigating claims of gross misconduct regarding three South Yorkshire Police officers, two detectives from the Bedfordshire force and one from South Wales into their handling of reports made to them about Watkins.
January 2015: Mjadzelics goes on trial at Cardiff Crown Court, but is cleared. dailymail
- Paedophile rocker Ian Watkins was left free to rape children and babies
- Three detectives face the sack after police ignored warnings over
- Lostprophets Ian Watkins: Police face misconduct action
Ian Watkins: Eight police officers investigated
11 Oct 2014
Seven cops were already being probed by the Independent Police Complaints Commission – and now it is looking into the conduct of an eighth
The conduct of an eighth police officer is being looked at in relation to the investigation into paedophile rock star Ian Watkins.
The Lostprophets singer was jailed for 29 years after admitting a catalogue of serious sex offences involving children.
A judge told him he had “plumbed new depths of depravity” before jailing him.
Seven officers were already being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) and an eighth – from South Yorkshire Police – is now under investigation, reports Wales Online.
There are now four officers from South Yorkshire Police, two from Bedfordshire Police, and two from South Wales Police facing gross misconduct notices.
In a statement the IPCC said: “The IPCC has served a misconduct notice on a South Yorkshire Police constable as part of its ongoing investigation into the force’s handling of information about Ian Watkins in 2012.
“Three South Yorkshire Police officers served with gross misconduct notices have already been interviewed by IPCC investigators.
“An interview with the fourth officer will take place in the near future.”
The IPCC said it has received a substantial amount of documentation from the three forces involved which is being analysed by investigators.
The officers served with misconduct notices are:
Two South Wales Police officers, including a detective constable who was attached to the Child Protection Unit – it is not known if they have been been suspended
A sergeant and three constables from South Yorkshire Police
A sergeant and constable from Bedfordshire Police – over their handling of information – who have not been suspended
When the investigation was first announced, South Wales Police force was accused of failing to “take appropriate and timely action” after getting the information from other fans of the band.
South Wales Police allegedly received information from four different police forces across Britain about Watkins.
The detective sergeant was also accused of not acting on a separate alleged crime in March 2012 of the alleged rape of a girl.
South Wales Police and South Yorkshire Police said at the start of the inquiry that they were cooperating with the IPCC.
Bedfordshire Police added: “At the time of the original investigation there was insufficient evidence to apply to the magistrates for a warrant.
“A medical examination of the child did not reveal any evidence of abuse at that time. However, information was shared with partner agencies, including South Wales Police and child protection processes followed.”
Watkins, who admitted 13 sexual offences including two attempts to rape a baby, was ordered to serve 29 years in jail and six on licence when he was sentenced in December 2013.
In July, a panel of judges refused Watkins permission to appeal against his 35-year sentence after he claimed it was “simply too great”.The Mirror