The Ian Watkins Trial and Die-Hard Fans

[Blade]

Before you read this thread, please note that if you don't know what this story is about, it isn't for the weak of heart.

So, the news broke today that Ian Watkins actually pleaded guilty to the two charges of attempting to rape a baby.

Sidebar, for those of you who don't know, Ian Watkins is the lead singer for Lostprophets, a Welsh rock band that have sold over 3 million records in the UK and Europe. They were one of those bands that took off during the Nu Metal fad, and then shifted more towards Emo as their fanbase grew. And, like all rock bands, they had a core group of die-hard fans that worshipped them.

The story goes that Ian Watkins convinved two of his fans to let him sexually assault their daughters, who were babies at the time. He also got them to perform incestuous acts on their children. As said above, he pleaded guilty and is likely not going to make it out of prison alive.

Now, I don't need to tell you how fucked up this whole situation is. But what really scares me is the thought that he convinced two of his die-hard fans to let him do these things. I never really thought about it, but when you look at fanbases of Justin Bieber or One Direction, there is a feeling that something's very off.

Celebrities using their status to take part in messed up activities is nothing new, as we all know. But to me, this is something on a whole new level of depraved. I mean, everyone knows about the Michael Jackson stories, but no one knows the complete truth behind that case, and it's unlikely that we ever will know. Watkins, meanwhile, pretty much admitted to everything.

So I ask you, are you surprised that this kind of thing could happen, despite the cult-like fanbase of certain celebrities? Could something this horrible be happening more often than we think? And while parents are brought into many debates concerning sex, violence and so on, is this something that a parent can have an influence on, specifically teaching children not to worship a celebrity like a god?

 

[Dan Severn's Moustache]

The thought that people could allow this to happen to their own children is Annie Wilkes levels of disturbing. They're just as much to blame as Watkins in this situation, if not even worse for allowing Watkins access to the children, as well as sexually abusing the children themselves. I hope all 3 individuals stay incarcerated for the rest of their lives.

As disgusting and shocking as the allegations are, it's not that much of a surprise to me, especially since the Jimmy Savile scandal arose. Celebrities always have, and always will use their fame to influence others around them, and it's been happening for a very long time. I don't think it's fair to pick on Justin Bieber and One Direction in particular, but there's a very good chance that fucked up things concerning celebrities are happening more than we think. If Jimmy Savile kept the decades of sexual abuse veiled, then there's almost certainly a guaranteed case that there is more to meet the eye with some celebrities. Maybe nowhere near the same degree as Savile or even sexually related, but with the numerous amounts of celebrities and their cult followings, it's almost entirely likely to be happening somewhere.

With that being said though, these situations are extremely rare. I don't think it's fair to tell children to not be big fans of celebrities. However, they should be taught not to be fanatic to the point that they would do anything to meet their celebrity, or disregard more important aspects of life, such as friends and family in favour of their celebrities.

 

[MCMG]

The story goes that Ian Watkins convinved two of his fans to let him sexually assault their daughters, who were babies at the time. He also got them to perform incestuous acts on their children. As said above, he pleaded guilty and is likely not going to make it out of prison alive.

I simply cannot get my head around this. Honestly one of the most fucked up things I have read. I'll say that Lostprophets have been my favourite band for some time now. I really do enjoy their music but defending Watkins is beyond impossible.

This is from the BBC website : Watkins sent a text to one of the women saying: "If you belong to me, so does your baby." The article also suggests that he, and the two women, had "indecent images" of children. This whole thing is really messed up.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25108439


God knows what else happens. Thankfully these three have been found out but I'm sure there are many other atrocities happening with regards to celebrities. Saville is a good example. It has taken this long for information to come out and I'd suspect not all of it has reached us.

To be honest, I'm not sure how you educate against it. There isn't something that can be said to prevent someone like Watkins committing these crimes. The same applies for fans. Once it gets to the stage that they worship someone I doubt anything seriously can be done. Using Bieber or 1D as an example, could a parent realistically prevent their child from idolising them. It goes beyond just liking their music - it is an obsession. I presume it was similar with regards to these two fans and Watkins. It is difficult to predict how far people will go to meet their idols.

He actually sent a text saying: "If you belong to me, so does your baby." How do you begin to guard against someone so incredibly twisted and fucked up.

 

[The Dragon Saga]

This is official the weirdest video ever as of today, disgustingly ironic.

I wouldn't call myself a fan of Lostphrophets but I did like a few of their songs. Anytime I saw Watkins being interviewed or otherwise he came across like just another musician, but this entire story is sick. Not only did he abuse his stature as someone I'm sure tons respected but abused it for sick intentions against a human being that can't defend itself.

Thank God he was caught and the child wasn't harmed. Dude can rot in hell.

 

[LSN80]

I was watching last night's episode of How I Met Your Mother in my office in bits and pieces during the day, and the episode involved Marshall(Jason Segal) telling his infant son(a year old) stories of he and his friends adventures over time. Marshall was critcized by a fellow train-passenger for telling said stories, all three highly crass and questionable in nature. Marshall reasoned, however, that you can tell a child stories such as this, because (s)he won't remember it. A lack of memory sounds pretty good right now for these kids. It's what I hope and pray for each of the children of these women and the others likely abused at the hands of Ian Watkins.

Why did he change his plea at the last moment? Don't know,don't care. If it gets more depraved then raping a baby, I'm struggling here to think of it. In my world, I hear the arguments of nature vs. nurture all the time, but how is someone born from a God or raised from a parent where they get to a point that this is how far down the path they've gone? As the multiple stories I've read about it said, the police are worried that there were more victims, and I'd bet my house on it. Predators like this rarely, if ever, get caught on the first attempt. Am I surprised this happened? Jaded as I can be at times, I am. How do two parties get to a place where a deal such as this is even on the table? It's senseless to me.

And yeah, I suppose this should serve as a wake-up call to parents and adults who allow their children to become obsessed with an artist, or become so themselves. It seems almost harmless in comparison when a young girl becomes a groupie for a particular band now, however, doesn't it? This strikes me as more of a cult following, rather then two obsessed fans. I can't think of even the most merely obsessed of fans offering their children up for sex, regardless of their love and admiration for said singer.

It takes the idea of 'cult like following' to a new level, doesn't it?

 

[Hollywood Naitch]

This whole trial sickens me, I just cannot fathom how any human can want to do the things that Watkins and these women discussed and talked about. At what point does a conversation get so depraved and evil that these suggestions are even made? Whether actual rape of a child took place, the fact it was GOING to happen, and being seriously discussed makes Watkins and these other women so incredibly dangerous that I hope they are locked away for an extremely long time.

As LSN says, it sounds more like a cult than just obsessed fans, as what kind of crazed fan would even think of abusing her child to impress a singer in a band they like- the more I read on this trial the more amazed and disgusted I am with Watkins and these women, who are almost as bad.

I think the Police are right to be concerned that their are other victims- almost certainly there will be. Watkins won't suddenly have developed these tendencies overnight, he will have done things before. Even his computer password "If***kids" gives this away.

I am going to delete all the Lostprophets songs from my iPod, as much as I love "Shinobivsdragonninja", "Last Train Home" and "The Fake Sound of Progress", I cannot bring myself to listen to them knowing what Watkins was really like, it makes my skin crawl and I am absolutely sickened.

I expect he will be locked away in solitary in prison, as we all know what prisoners do to people convicted of offences against children, but I hope one of the wardens somehow "forgets" to lock Watkins cell, or leaves him unsupervised in the showers and he can gets what he deserves. I will even provide the razorblades.

A vile, evil human being who deserves everything he gets in prison.

 

[Slash-LN]

On top of that he wanted to teach the babies to take drugs according to this article and “planned to intoxicate one of his victims by blowing crystal-meth smoke into the child’s face at a Cardiff hotel.”

I'm sure it will come to light that there definitely are more victims. There's also two 16 year old fans that he had sex with. So if he could talk these women into this and if he could get at least two 16 year old fans to have sex with him I'm certain there have to be more.

The one thing that I don't like about the article I read is it talked about how police found a bunch of drugs. The article said the drug use likely contributed to his actions. I feel like that is kind of giving him an out. Pretty much saying if he wasn't doing drugs he wouldn't be doing this kind of stuff. While there is a possibility that could be true we don't know that. He could just be a fucked up dude. I've known a lot of people who did drugs and none of them went around molesting babies.

As far as does this surprise me? Not at all. There was a girl in her early teens that really liked my band and she sent both our drummer and I messages on MySpace talking about wanting to sleep with us and we aren't even celebrities. So if these women are already fans of the band they probably feel some sort of connection to them, this guy was texting them so he had clearly allowed them to get at least somewhat close, add his star power into the equation and who knows what kind of psychological issues these women may have and it seems like it would be pretty easy to manipulate someone into doing something so outlandish.

I wouldn't be surprised at all if there are more cases of this that go on that the public isn't aware of.

This isn't celebrity related but there's this story where the parents planned to sexually abuse the children before the children were even born. There's all kinds of fucked up people in this world so nothing surprises me to be honest.

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com...sexual-exploitation-sarah-adleta-sexual-abuse

 

[HBsam31]

I am not a fan of celebrity worship. It is actually quite ridiculous to me. Hey LSN do you remember when the city of Pittsburgh was going to take a collection to pay one of James Harrison's fines? Here is a guy that would not piss any of us out if we were on fire, and the people of the city wanted to pay for a late hit fine or something like that. It astounds me. This though, I don't even know what this is. I have to admit this is the first time that I have ever heard of someone trying to rape babies. It doesn't surprise me at all, but this is a first for me. I can't even wrap my mind around what kind of celebrity worship that would have to take. It is actually making me feel disgusted just thinking about what went on there. Watkins will pay for this in a pretty horrible way in jail once they all get to him, but I think the disgusting pigs that called themselves mothers to these children should suffer the same fate. I will encourage my daughter to keep her love for celebrities in check, but these people obviously had something wrong with them otherwise. Oh, and yeah I am sure there are plenty more victims here. Like someone else already mentioned, these people don't seem to get caught on the first offense so I am sure he was at it for quite a while.

 

[Jack-Hammer]

I wish I could say that I was surprised. Unfortunately, I've had the displeasure of having to deal with inmates who have committed similar offenses against children. What makes this seem all the more shocking to some is this guy's celebrity status over in the UK. Offenders like Watkins are the ones that it's the most difficult for me to behave professionally around as I have to constantly fight the urge to cave their heads in with a nightstick and empty an entire can of military grade strength mace into their eyes before throwing them into the general population after letting every single prisoner know what they're in here for. I know I'd lose my job and face charges of my own but sometimes.....every once in a while, I almost let myself go there; especially if it's some smarmy, arrogant bastard who feels no remorse for what he's done.

The simple fact of the matter is that there are some people in the world who are depraved and they come from all walks of life. People don't generally expect to hear about this kind of thing in regards to celebrities but it's likely that some of the most well known, influential and powerful people on Earth have similar sexual tendencies as Ian Watkins. I'm sure that it happens much more frequently than we know about. You don't have to be someone famous or especially talented to be a sexual deviant. When you consider that there are roughly 7 billion human beings on Earth, the law of averages suggest that this sort of thing happens far more than we probably realize.

As to the cult-like devotion some celebrities, especially musicians, inspire in some fans, I honestly can't explain it. There are musicians I really admire for their talent, for example, but I know that they're flesh & blood human beings just like me. The devotion some of these fans have strikes me as something that'd be laughable if it didn't come across as pitiful at times. I also know that they're not directly speaking to me and me alone through the lyrics of their songs or whatever sort of insane fantasy some fans weave about themselves.

 

[LSN80]

The one thing that I don't like about the article I read is it talked about how police found a bunch of drugs. The article said the drug use likely contributed to his actions. I feel like that is kind of giving him an out. Pretty much saying if he wasn't doing drugs he wouldn't be doing this kind of stuff. While there is a possibility that could be true we don't know that. He could just be a fucked up dude. I've known a lot of people who did drugs and none of them went around molesting babies.

There's a possibility that this may be true, but so what? No one forced Ian Watkins to do drugs, it was a personal choice on his behalf. There's always a 'reason' why people do things, but that doesn't make it justifiable. There's no doubt in my mind that he's a very mentally ill human being as well, but again, the second his mind began to go down this path where he even took doing such vile things into consideration, he should have gone to get help. The fact that he both chose to do drugs and let himself go to the point where he committed such acts is on him, no one else.

There will always be speculation amongst "experts" as to why people do the things they do, but regardless of reason, I think there is always that point ,that moment of decision, where people make choices that define their lives. Watkins made a choice to go down a path that was absolutely sickening. I don't mind that the article mentioned the drugs they found on Watkins, because it may have been relevant to his choices. But he was the one who chose to do drugs, and if it had an adverse effect on his thinking, he's the only one to blame.

As far as does this surprise me? Not at all. There was a girl in her early teens that really liked my band and she sent both our drummer and I messages on MySpace talking about wanting to sleep with us and we aren't even celebrities. So if these women are already fans of the band they probably feel some sort of connection to them, this guy was texting them so he had clearly allowed them to get at least somewhat close, add his star power into the equation and who knows what kind of psychological issues these women may have and it seems like it would be pretty easy to manipulate someone into doing something so outlandish.

Easy? I'm not so sure about this. One of the things I think about consistently is how criminals come together. How do they know that the person they're desiring to enter into criminal activity will be on board?

It's not as if they can advertise such things on EBay or CraigsList, right? I understand the shaping of organized crime, but how do these small criminal deeds come together? It baffles me, how people get so ballsy that they band together to rob a bank, much less allowing a man to sexually abuse their child. It would take almost levels of mind-control by Ian Watkins, and deep, unchecked psychiatric history. When I read things like this, I wonder how it got to the point where Watkins and these women came together, and to such an agreement in the first place.

It is actually quite ridiculous to me. Hey LSN do you remember when the city of Pittsburgh was going to take a collection to pay one of James Harrison's fines? Here is a guy that would not piss any of us out if we were on fire, and the people of the city wanted to pay for a late hit fine or something like that. It astounds me.

I do, and it sickened me. I remember the hit in question, and while I thought the NFL got it wrong, the man is paid millions of dollars to play a sport many of us would do for free. The message was one of solidarity and support for Steelers nation, no doubt, but do you think James Harrison cared? He was a spoiled, petulant child who was aloof at best.

On a side note regarding Harrison, I met him once through a charity basketball game my wife arranged when she worked at Washington & Jefferson college. The basketball team played the Steelers, and all proceeds were for charity. Harrison played, but when it came to the autograph signings the players had agreed to do so ahead of time, there was a big commotion because Harrison wanted to charge for his autographs and pictures taken with him.

Here's a man who makes millions of dollars, so he estimates that, even at a charity event, his "worth" is more then the common person. As much as I love my Pittsburgh sports teams, I don't know if I would want to know most of them off the field/ice.

Unless they were willing to make a sizeable donation to my bank account, of course. But my children, with everything that's in my power, will learn that celebrities and athletes, while entertaining, are human beings, people of no higher status as humans then you or I.