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| Lostprophets' Ian Watkins: Celeb status inquiry under way | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| An inquiry into whether Lostprophets' Ian Watkins' celebrity status prevented him from being brought to justice as a child sex abuser earlier is being held. | |
| Gross misconduct notices have been served on seven police officers as part of an investigation into the handling of allegations against Watkins. | |
| They include three from South Yorkshire Police, two from Bedfordshire Police, and two from South Wales Police. | |
| Last year Watkins was jailed for 29 years for serious child sex offences. | |
| Independent Police Complaints Commission commissioner Jan Williams said: "We are continuing to gather and analyse information in all three investigations in order to establish what steps were taken by police in response to the allegations made against Ian Watkins, whether he could have been brought to justice sooner and whether his celebrity status had any impact on those investigations." | |
| Pornographic image | |
| The Pontypridd-born Lostprophets singer was jailed for 29 years last December after admitting a catalogue of serious sex offences involving children. | |
| Watkins, 36, admitted the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13 but pleaded not guilty to rape. | |
| He also admitted conspiring to rape a child, three counts of sexual assault involving children, seven involving taking, making or possessing indecent images of children and one of possessing an extreme pornographic image involving a sex act on an animal. | |
| The IPCC has received a substantial amount of documentation from the three forces which is being analysed by investigators. | |
| The three South Yorkshire officers - one sergeant and two police constables - have been served with notices advising them that their conduct is subject to investigation. | The three South Yorkshire officers - one sergeant and two police constables - have been served with notices advising them that their conduct is subject to investigation. |
| The IPCC is looking at complaints around the handling of three reports made to the force between March and May 2012 which contained allegations against Watkins with potential evidence. | The IPCC is looking at complaints around the handling of three reports made to the force between March and May 2012 which contained allegations against Watkins with potential evidence. |
| It is also investigating Bedfordshire Police's handling of information from a member of the public who reported an allegation of child abuse against Watkins to the force in October 2012. | It is also investigating Bedfordshire Police's handling of information from a member of the public who reported an allegation of child abuse against Watkins to the force in October 2012. |
| A sergeant and a constable have been served with notices advising them their conduct is under investigation. | A sergeant and a constable have been served with notices advising them their conduct is under investigation. |
| A South Wales Police detective constable, who was attached to the Child Protection Unit, is the second officer from the force to be investigated. | |
| Mrs Williams added that good progress was being made. | |
| She said: "We have now conducted two interviews with a detective sergeant from South Wales Police about his actions in relation to information about Ian Watkins. | |
| "We anticipate he will be interviewed again in the near future." | |
| South Wales Police's temporary Assistant Chief Constable Liane James said the force had carried out a full review of the sequence of events that led to the arrest of Ian Watkins. | |
| She said: "We identified that there were issues of concern and referred the matter to the Independent Police Complaint's Commission for investigation. | |
| "We are committed to reviewing cases, as we did here, and to learn lessons if we have got it wrong as appropriate. We will respond promptly to the IPCC investigation and its findings. | |
| "We have already completed reviews into supervision within public protection and our intelligence processes to improve our identification of risk. | |
| "Our primary objective as an organisation remains the safeguarding of vulnerable people and children." |