This is the moment prison officers recover the makeshift blade allegedly used to murder paedophile Lostprophets frontman Ian Watkins inside maximum-security HMP Wakefield.

The disgraced singer, 48, suffered catastrophic blood loss after being slashed three times to the face and neck on October 11 last year, with one wound cutting through his voicebox and left jugular vein.

Rico Gedel, 25, who was serving a life sentence for murder, has admitted killing Watkins but denies intending to murder him.

He told the court how he attacked Watkins while telling him: ‘This is what paedophiles deserve.’

Sex offender Samuel Dodsworth, 44, also denies murder.

Prosecutors allege he was acted as Gedel’s look-out and disposed of the weapon after the 20-second attack inside the category-A security prison.

Prosecutor Tom Storey KC, told jurors that another inmate informed a prison officer that the weapon had been dropped in a communal bin.

He said: ‘The only bins were in the recess that Dodsworth had been seen walking into and out of, and so two officers began searching them.

Rico Gedel, 25, (pictured here on bodyworn camera footage) who was serving a life sentence for murder, has admitted killing Watkins but denies intending to murder him

Prosecutors told jurors that another inmate informed a prison officer that the weapon had been dropped in a communal bin 

Pictured is the moment prison officers recover the makeshift blade 

‘At the bottom of one of the bins, they found what looked like a home-made knife with tape wound around it, and which appeared to have blood on it.’

Gedel, who was serving a life sentence for murder, told jurors that he stabbed Watkins in a bid to move into a segregation unit because sharing the prison’s B Wing with sex offenders ‘disgusted’ him.

Detailing the attack in evidence, he told jurors: ‘There’s no easy way to say it.

‘I stabbed him in his neck, slashed him. It wasn’t a poking motion. It was a slashing motion.

‘I slashed his throat. Blood immediately didn’t come out. So I slashed his ear. But I didn’t think I got his ear, I think I got his cheek.

‘Then I think I got his neck. So I slashed him again and that’s when he started bleeding.’

Asked if he said anything to Watkins during the attack, Gedel replied: ‘This is what paedophiles deserve.’

‘I don’t think (Watkins) could speak. It was like a mumbled scream, saying “help”.’

Ian Watkins was jailed in 2013 for a string of horrific child sex offences, including the attempted rape of an 11-month-old baby

Rico Gedel, 25, is on trial accused of murdering Watkins at Wakefield prison in October 2025

Rico Gedel (left) pictured walking away from Ian Watkins’ cell after he was attacked at HMP Wakefield

Watkins, from Pontypridd, South Wales, was jailed in 2013 for a string of horrific child sex offences, including the attempted rape of an 11-month-old baby.

He was declared dead on the prison landing less than an hour after the 9.19am attack.

Jurors had been told that his convictions for child sex offences meant he was a constant target for other prisoners, some of whom believed prison was ‘too good’ for him.

When Gedel was taken past Watkins’s open cell door while emergency treatment was under way, he was recorded on camera saying: ‘Have a good night’s sleep, Watkins lad.’

Officers’ body cameras recorded ‘calm’ Gedel four minutes after the attack saying they would ‘never find’ the weapon.

Gedel also appeared to find the situation ‘amusing’, the court previously heard, and was later described as ‘perky’ while under observation from prison guards.

While locked up and monitored by guards, he was also recorded asking for a pen ‘so I can do my sudoku’.

He is also alleged to have told one officer: ‘If I’ve killed him, you could be talking to someone famous.’

Ian Watkins (left, partially hidden) looking out from his cell after he was attacked at HMP Wakefield

Samuel Dodsworth, 44, is alleged to have acted as a ‘look-out’ and disposed of the murder weapon in a bin

Gedel initially refused to answer questions after his arrest, the court previously heard, but later said he was jealous of ‘nonce prisoners’ because they were treated ‘like royalty’.

Asked who had caused Watkins’ injuries, Gedel replied: ‘God’.

The jury has heard Watkins had received two threatening notes the day before his death demanding £500 and warning he would have his ‘head cracked open’ if he failed to pay.

The prosecution say the attack was ‘clearly a joint offence’ as Dodsworth was aware the attack was to take place.

The trial continues.