Former members of Lostprophets hoped Ian Watkins' child sex charges were a "mistake"

In an interview with BBC Newsbeat, No Devotion, a band made up of the former members of Lostprophets and Thursday frontman Geoff Rickly, spoke on whether they were aware that the band's former frontman Ian Watkins was a paedophile prior to his 2012 arrest. Watkins was sentenced to 29 years in prison after pleading guilty to 13 charges including the attempted rape and sexual assault.

Guitarist Lee Gaze was in disbelief of the entire situation.

"How could you know? How would you know? Who would disclose such a thing to five people, who between them have eight children? You just wouldn't because they would be killed on the spot."

Bassist Stuart Richardson added, "Even though I was completely done with him, I hoped it was all a mistake, he was innocent, he had to be. The first time, we knew the band was done. You can't go back from that."

Gaze also spoke of the last time he was around Watkins, during the filming of the video for the final single off of 2012's Weapons, where he describes Watkins as "strangely positive and enthusiastic about everything".

"[He was] talking about the next record and how it's going to do really well and get back on our feet. It goes to show how deluded he was. He is just completely on a different level to everybody, happy and positive and convinced we are going to be successful again."

Watkins was arrested nine days later.

No Devotion are making efforts to move on, recently releasing their debut single 'Stay' and working on their debut album. The band played their first gig earlier this month in Cardiff, an event described by the band's rhythm guitarist Mike Lewis as "incredibly cathartic".