Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins was sentenced to 29 years in prison for child abuse in 2013. (AP PHOTO)

Two men have been arrested over the gruesome murder of a pedophile rock star who was serving a 29-year sentence for child sex offences in a British jail.

Disgraced former frontman of the Welsh band Lostprophets, Ian Watkins was stabbed to death on Saturday at a jail in West Yorkshire.

“At 9.39am this morning, police were called by staff at HMP Wakefield reporting an assault on a prisoner,” a statement from West Yorkshire Police said.

“Emergency services attended and the man was pronounced dead at the scene a short time later.

Watkins’ attacker is thought to have slashed his jugular in the attack.

“Watkins has been killed in the most brutal way possible – and the attack was shocking, even by prison standards,” a source told The Sun.

“He was targeted by another inmate who shanked him in the neck.”

Two men, aged 25 and 43, have been arrested and are in police custody, police said.

Watkins, 48, was jailed for 29 years in December 2013 with a further six years on licence, after admitting a string of sex offences – including the attempted rape of a fan’s baby.

He was arrested following the execution of a drugs warrant at his Pontypridd home in 2012 when a large number of computers, mobile phones and storage devices were seized.

Analysis of the equipment uncovered Watkins’ depraved behaviour.

In 2019 he was jailed for 10 months on top of the sentence he was serving for child sex offences after he was found guilty of possessing a mobile phone in prison.

Watkins claimed two inmates forced him to hold on to the phone so they could contact women who sent him fan mail in order to use them as a “revenue stream”.

He refused to name the men, but said: “You would not want to mess with them”.

He also said his fellow inmates were “murderers, mass murderers, rapists, pedophiles, serial killers – the worst of the worst”.

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