Call made for inquiry into authorities’ over Ian Watkins case

A call has been made for an “educative” inquiry into the actions of the social services and police in the Ian Watkins case.

The Lostprophets singer was given a 29-year jail sentence at the end of last year and will spend a further six years on license after pleading guilty to 13 sexual offences.

The former chairman of the British Association of Social Services, David Niven, has said there needs to be a large scale inquiry into what happened between social services and the police over the case, in order for institutions to learn from it.

He commented: “Because of the numbers of children involved, the number of forces involved, the number of professional people involved in decision making, some kind of large inquiry really needs to happen that will be transparent and be educative for the rest of professionals up and down Wales and England.”

BBC Wales writes that in 2008 social services were told about a girl who was pictured with a substance that was allegedly cocaine.

Joanne Mjadzelics, Watkins’ former lover, told the BBC that she sent the police and social services a picture of a girl of about four with a razor blade and a line of white power holding a rolled up £20. Watkins told her the substance was cocaine.

“Every time I knew that my complaints weren’t going anywhere with the police I would back it up by going to social services and saying, ‘Can’t you do anything about this?'” said Mjadzelics.

Rhondda Cynon Taf council social services said that after receiving Mjadzelics’ report, they took action “in line with agreed procedures”.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission has however confirmed it is investigating three police forces over the case.