This document discusses the 2013 sentencing of Welsh pop singer Ian Watkins to 29 years in prison for attempting to rape babies provided by fan mothers. It explores Watkins' background and the extreme nature of his abuse, as well as the mental health and ethical implications of professionals confronting reports of such "unbelievable" abuse crimes. It cautions against dismissing abuse disclosures and examines dissociative disorders, sociopathic tendencies, and the impact of trauma on memory systems in relation to the case.

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ETHICAL CHALLENGES POSED BY BABY AND TODDLER SEXUAL ABUSE: ‘THE LOST PROPHETS’ SINGER IAN WATKINS
© 2014 Outstanding Achievements
Summary A disgraced Welsh pop star was sentenced to 29 years imprisonment plus 6 years extended licence on 18th December 2013 having admitted to two counts of attempting to rape babies provided by ‚Superfan‘ mothers. This poster explores the background of the perpetrator, the nature of extreme child abuse and the ethical challenges posed for mental health professionals when confronted with ‚unbelievable‘ abuse acts reported by witnesses or victims.
References
American Psychiatric Association (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, Fifth Edition. Arlington, VA: American Psychiatric Association.
Brewin, C. (2001). A cognitive neuroscience account of posttraumatic stress disorder and its treatment. Behaviour Research and Therapy,Vol. 39, 373–393
Becker, T., Karriker, W., Overkamp, B. & Rutz, C. (2008). The extreme abuse surveys: preliminary findings regarding dissociative identity disorder. In Sachs, A. & Galton, G. (Eds.): Forensic aspects of dissociative identity disorder. Karnac Books: London..
Hawton, Z. (2013). Trauma and neuro scientific thinking and practice. Lecture on the Advanced Dissociation Course at the Bowlby Centre. London.
Herman, J. (1993). Trauma and Recovery. Basic Books: New York.
Janet, P. (1917). Psychological Healing. Vol 1. Translated Paul, E & Paul, C. Macmillan Publishing: New York.
Background The Welsh rocker Ian Watkins rose to fame with his band ‚The Lost Prophets‘. The band founded in the late 1990‘ies started off with a ‚clean‘ image denouncing drugs etc. Rumours of Ian‘s Paedophile tendencies had been circulating since 2004, and a former girlfriend tried to alert police authorities since 2008. In the course of a drugs raid in 2012 incriminating film, photo and data evidence was found of extreme child abuse.
Mental Health Implications The case speaks to sociopathic tendencies. Power corrupts – absolute power corrupts absolutely. Mental health professionals need to look underneath the veneer of ‘respectability’ and success. Traumatic memories as described by Janet (1917) and Herman (1993) are likely to lead to ‘Dissociation Spectrum Disorders’. Ian Watkins claimed he "cannot remember" the attempted rapes – while this may well be an outright lie it could also be a sign of a dissociative disorder brought about by abuse in his own childhood.
Figure 1: Ian Watkins (2007)
Dr Hermann Kurz C.Psychologist ichinendaimoku@gmail.com Zoe Hawton Psychotherapist Clinic for Dissociative Studies
Extreme Child Abuse Issues
The criminal investigation recovered abuse massive amounts of pornographic images. The computer password cracked by security services was ‚If***kids‘. Among the damning evidence presented by the prosecution were email exchanges between Watkins and the ‚Superfans‘ setting up planned abuse sessions in a hotel, and video-taped evidence of the attempted baby rapes. The ruling gives graphic details of the abuse acts:
http://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/embed_code/29386021#
The case raises a wide range of mental health and society issues - questions on the state-of- mind of the perpetrator, impact on the child victim and ethical challenges posed when witnesses or victims report crimes of such an ‚unbelievable‘ nature – without having the ‚luxury‘ of electronically captured evidence. In particular it cautions professionals to refrain from dismissing such abuse disclosures:
delusion a false belief based on incorrect inference about external reality that is firmly sustained despite what almost everyone beliefs and despite what constitutes incontrovertible and obvious proof or evidence to the contrary.
American Psychiatric Association (2013) p. 819.
Extreme Abuse Ideology UK society was rocked in 2012 when it emerged that the recently deceased DJ Jimmy Saville had abused hundreds of children during his celebrity career. At least four of his victims were only 4 years old. Evidence emerged that some of these fell into what Becker et al. (2008) called ‚Ideologically Motivated Crimes‘ e.g.: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/371936/I- was-raped-at-13-by-Jimmy-Savile-in-satanist- ritual UK media coverage of the Ian Watkins case was extremely muted. Wales Online was seemingly the only media outlet providing clues that Ian Watkins may well have fallen under the spell of a ‚devil worshipping sex cult‘: http://www.walesonline.co.uk/all- about/ian%20watkins?pageNumber=1
•Starstruck youngsters even offered to worship Satan if he wanted them to.
•He had some weird sociopathic tendency to think he was above the law and everything. He didn’t come across as horrible. He came across as charismatic, charming and into the person he was talking to. He was just very confident and believed that whatever he did he would be okay. He thought he was a rock god and he thought he would get away with everything.
•He wanted to rape and kill children. He wanted to rape newborns. He liked bestiality.
•He described himself openly as ‘evil’.
Figure 3: Dissociation Symptoms (Hawton, 2013)
Situational & Verbal Memory
Brewin (2001) proposed that the brain has a dual representational theory with situationally (SAMS) and verbally (VAMS) accessible memories. This is rather like two sometimes conflicting operating systems inside the head with one dominant depending on what we are doing. Watkins claimed the abuse was ‘Mega- lols’ and that no harm was done really – when of course traumatic situational memories will have been created.
Figure 2: SAMS & VAMS (Hawton, 2013)