Ian Watkins Post Mortem Results

Added: 2026-05-17

[00:00:00]So, in this episode, we hear from forensic pathologist Dr. Robert Ainsworth concerning the wounds Ian Watkins sustained during his brutal assault. The jury are taken through Samuel Dodsworth's police interviews, and prison officers describe the initial detention of Rico Goodell after Ian Watkins murder.

[00:00:18]Now, the following information is taken directly from inside courtroom 4 at Leeds Crown Court, where two defendants, Rico Goodell and Samuel Dodsworth, are currently standing trial accused of Ian Watkins murder. Take a listen to the following.

[00:00:34]A prisoner accused of murdering Lost Prophet singer Ian Watkins was said to be unhappy about having to move wings the day before the fatal attack and had threatened to do something to get moved to segregation.

[00:00:47]Adam Lacox said he had been involved in moving Gadell from A-wing to B-wing the day before Watkins was killed. Mr. Lok's statement read to jurors by prosecutor Chris Rose said Goodell didn't want to move wings. He had mentioned a number of times that if he was moved, he would do something. Often this is the kind of threat prisoners make and often they do nothing to carry it out. I knew Goodell would rather go to segregation than be moved to somewhere he didn't want to be.

[00:01:15]Mr. Lakeok said he rushed to B-wing on the day of Watkins death after hearing a code red called and saw Goodell being escorted by officers. I noticed Goodell was looking somewhat smug and seemed to have a smirk on his face, his statement read. Jurers also heard statements from several officers who searched Goodell when he was moved to his cell after the incident. Patrick Wilson, who was part of the jail's dedicated search team, DST, said Goodell was laughing as he entered the cell. And responded, "I used my hands." When asked where the weapon was, Mr. Wilson said he kept laughing, saying things like, "You guys are DST.

[00:01:52]This should be the highlight of the day." Jurors were shown bodyworn camera footage of Goodell saying, "I hope he sleeps." to officers who were searching his cell. Anthony Whiteside said Goodell was calm and cold throughout the search and did not seem bothered about what had happened. His statement read, "Godell said something like, "You'll never find it." When asked about the weapon, he said things like, "I hope he sleeps. I hope he goes to sleep. It was clear he had hurt him.

[00:02:20]>> Have a good night. Sleeping.

[00:02:28]>> Have a good night. What? Gunsl.

[00:02:33]>> The jury also heard statements from multiple officers who conducted a search of Goodell following his transfer to his cell after the incident. Another prison officer, Andrew Chaplain, who spoke to Goodell through the door of his cell while observing him after the incident, said Goodell was perky and was laughing and joking as he talked about football and rugby, saying he used to play for SARS's. He said Goodell told him, "If I'm going to do life for murder, I'm going to make sure it's worth it." And said words to the effect of, "If I've killed him, you could be talking to someone famous."

[00:03:05]An officer from the segregation wing at HMP Longin, where Goodell was taken after Watkins death, said Goodell seemed proud of what had happened and said he felt like a celebrity.

[00:03:17]Jurors were told that the makeshift weapon found in the prison bins where it was disposed of by Samuel Dodsworth was made of a Stanley knife stuck to a piece of plastic cutlery with large amounts of tape. The court has heard Goodell passed the knife to Dodsworth after leaving Watkins cell.

[00:03:33]In his interview with police after the stabbing, Goodell complained about his treatment in prison and said, "In a normal prison, there's nonswings and normal wings, but in Wakefield it's just everyone." In a transcript of the interview read in court, Goodell was asked how he felt about sharing a wing with people like that. He replied, "It's disgusting."

[00:03:55]The court is now hearing details of Dodsworth being shown CCTV footage in his police interview. He identified a number of people also featured on the footage. Dodsworth said, "You watch the camera on the other side. I collect the cup. That's the showering recess. I put the blade in the bin and then I got the hot water. You should see me with a beaker coming out in a minute. I was hanging around where the lift is.

[00:04:18]Goodell walked around to get to the on's level below.

[00:04:22]Me and the two lads, the old disabled guy, we and the other lad were having a discussion. Goodell walks past Watkins and turns around and comes out looking over the railings. If you discuss someone, of course you're going to keep an eye on him. You don't want anything robining of yours. At the time, no one would have been thinking that someone was getting cut up. He looked like he was going to rob someone. If you rob someone, no one looks at the cameras.

[00:04:44]I can't afford to be going around carrying out hit jobs on people and I've never been violent since being in prison. Dodsworth told officers he was previously on the same wing as Goodell.

[00:04:54]He said, "We've had conversations."

[00:04:57]Dodsworth said Goodell had never bullied him. When asked if he worked for him, he said if he paid me to do his cleaning in his cell and that, he said he is in prison for a sexual offense. Dodsworth told officers, "If you're a grass, you're going to get cut up for it. When you're in prison, you look after yourself.

[00:05:15]Asked about whether he knew Watkins, Dodsworth said, "I know of him, but he's just another inmate to me which is just doing his time." He said he didn't dislike the singer and had been in his cell before, adding that the two of them would sometimes have a laugh and a joke.

[00:05:30]Dodsworth told police, "I knew he were a famous person and he was in for a sexual offense, but other than that, I knew he would have been highprofile. He would have had all that money from fame."

[00:05:40]asked about Watkins being beaten. He said, "Because it's a high-risisk prison, even I'm expecting to get beat up one day before I leave that prison."

[00:05:48]He said he'd had general chitchat with Watkins in his cell, adding, "With this sort of situation, I get a bit nervous myself. Since I've been in, I've been looking over my shoulder because of my offense. Even though my crime isn't as worse as what Mr. Watkins is, it's still a sexual offense."

[00:06:05]Dodsworth said Watkins didn't really mingle with lots of people and there was only one inmate whose cell he went in regularly. The guy whose cell he goes in, they both used to chuck money in together to get frozen food so they can cook at the weekend. He told police.

[00:06:19]Dodsworth claimed he knew nothing about threatening notes sent to Watkins days before his death, but said, "I've known in the past Watkins has had notes passed to him. He's received one before."

[00:06:31]Moving back to events of October 11th, Dodsworth said he went to get a vape and take it to Amjad's cell where Gadell was. He said Gadell's only been there a day or two because the only time I went to his door was when he asked me if I could get a pack of toilet roll and if I had any books a couple of days ago, but the staff had locked his door and got him toilet roll and books and once they had, I was off. If you watch, you would have seen Frank having a conversation with me and me having a conversation with him. This is why I said to you when I was stood there with Frank, if you look at it from the other angle, we saw Gadell looking into cell one and two and one of them said, "He looks like he's up to no good. He's on the rob." Like I said, I was stood at the top chatting because I had my cup of tea with me.

[00:07:12]There's normally a group. We're always hanging about on that little section there. Dodsworth said he met Goodell a good couple of months ago. He denies talking about the attack on Watkins. He said, "Wrong place, wrong time." when we were discussing that he was robbing someone. I wish I had moved. Dodsworth said, "There is a routine on the wing. I just go around doing my own jobs and everything. I don't know mostly of what goes on. And even if someone was going to tell me, it's not my kind of thing because apart from this sentence, I've only got one for assault. It's not my cup of tea getting in fights and stuff.

[00:07:46]I've been straight from the start. The only wrongdoing I've ever done is hurt a woman and that's it."

[00:07:52]When Doddsworth was asked if he could have prevented the stabbing, he said, "How could I when I didn't know anything about it?" Speaking of the knife, he said, "In prison, it's a dog eat dog weld out there. I panicked and wrapped it in a tissue and saw the bin and threw it in." Dodsworth's interview ended there.

[00:08:11]Dr. Robert Ainsworth will now give evidence. Dr. Ainsworth is a home office approved forensic pathologist. He was asked on October 11th last year to carry out a post-mortem examination on Ian Watkins and that took place the following day at Bradford Morttery.

[00:08:27]Dr. Ainsworth said he prepared a report following the postmortem. He gave a cause of death of one an inciz wound of the neck. Dr. Ainsworth said he attended a police briefing before carrying out the postmortem during which he was shown a number of photos taken by CSI showing parts of the interior of Wakefield Prison.

[00:08:48]He said he was made aware Watkins had been a category A inmate at HMP Wakefield of his previous medical history, the circumstances in which he had died, and that he had been attacked in his cell and sustained a slash across the neck. The pathologist was also made aware of medical treatment he had been given and that he had been declared dead at 10:14 a.m. on October 11th. Dr. Ainsworth is taking the court through injuries recorded on Watkins body. They are injury one upper third to the right ear extending vertically. Incized wound 4.2 cm in length. Injury two left side of the face. Incized wound 11 cm in length opposed. Upper part of the wound for 2 cm was generally straight and the majority of the wound below this slightly curved. Wound exposed underlying soft tissue below the left cheek. essentially a sharp cut that was a longer injury. The upper part was deeper than the rest of the injury.

[00:09:48]Injury three, neck incized wound.

[00:09:51]Another sharp cut caused by a sharp implement 10.5 cm up down and gaping wound 4 cm across. Dr. Ainsworth described it as an open appearing wound.

[00:10:03]He said there was also a small nick towards the bottom of the wound. It simply suggests there is a slight movement of what instrument is used as it's cutting across the skin has changed direction slightly.

[00:10:15]He said the wound exposed the soft tissues underneath and the larynx Adam's apple and part of the cartilage at the front. The wound was 1.5 cm deep. He said there was a defect or hole at the front of the left jugular vein. He said a clear and obvious wound to the left vein on the side of the neck. The inferior end of the wound had also tracked beneath the skin downwards, backwards, and towards the middle line at a depth of 2.5 cm. Whatever had caused it had also cut beneath the skin for 2.5 cm.

[00:10:49]Also an injury is injury 4, a small area of bruising towards the lower end of this wound. I suspect it is the shape of the implement in that a Stanley blade is triangular. And if that has cut from top to bottom towards the bottom at the angle the blade was coming out of the body, that triangular blade is still cutting the skin as it's coming out.

[00:11:10]Dr. Ainsworth said there were a number of other injuries, including one that he said could have been caused by medical interventions and a skin lesion, which he said could essentially be a birthark.

[00:11:21]Dr. Ainsworth concluded on the basis of the findings of the postmorton, it is concluded Mr. Watkins death was due to an incized wound of the neck caused by a sharp implement such as a bladed weapon.

[00:11:34]The trauma to the internal jugular vein would have resulted in significant external bleeding which was the most likely cause of his death. That said, the injury to the larynx could have caused issues to his breathing. The other two incized wounds would have resulted in some degree of external blood loss, but is not considered to have played a significant role in his death. What actually caused his death?

[00:11:56]The most likely cause of his death was external blood loss from bleeding from the vein. It is a very significant blood vessel and if that is damaged in any way such that blood loss occurs then it's a significant threat to life. He also had the threat to the larynx and a small defect all the way through to the airway. So couldn't conclude that that wasn't a factor in his death.

[00:12:18]Dr. Ainsworth said in general terms in such instances individuals don't collapse immediately from blood loss.

[00:12:25]They potentially collapse in 5 or 10 minutes as the blood loss accumulates.

[00:12:29]If it's stemmed and prevented, it is survivable. But if whatever reason it continues, an individual becomes weaker and the blood loss becomes significant.

[00:12:38]The heart effectively stops.

[00:12:42]Dr. Ainsworth said all of the incized wounds could have certainly been caused by the same implement, such as the makeshift knife found following Mr. Watkins death.

[00:12:52]Now, in tomorrow's episode, Rico Goodell enters the witness box for the very first time, where he recounts the events leading up to his murder of Ian Watkins.

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