Ian Watkins moved to softer jail full of sex offenders in Warwickshire

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Lostprophets singer was moved from Category A prison HMP Long Lartin to the lower security Category B prison HMP Rye Hill, in Warwickshire
HMP Rye Hill was made a sex offenders-only prison last year
The sick singer is now surrounded by child abusers and paedophiles
A petition calling on Justice Secretary Chris Grayling to reverse the prison move has been launched by Watkins' former lover Joanne Mjadzelics

Published: 05:29 EST, 8 February 2015 | Updated: 11:53 EST, 8 February 2015

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Paedophile rock star Ian Watkins has been moved to a lower security 'soft prison' - where he is surrounded by other sex offenders

Paedophile rock star Ian Watkins has been moved to a lower security 'soft prison' - where he is surrounded by other sex offenders.

The Lostprophets front man, who was jailed for 29 years after admitting the attempted rape of a baby and the sexual assault of a child under 13, was moved from Category A prison HMP Long Lartin to the lower security Category B prison HMP Rye Hill to carry on his sentence.

The prison move has caused outrage among child safety campaigners who say Watkins has been placed in a 'haven for paedophiles'.

A petition calling on Justice Secretary Chris Grayling to reverse the prison move has been launched by Watkins' former lover Joanne Mjadzelics - who repeatedly reported the singer to police and social services for four years before his arrest.

Ms Mjadzelics said: 'Ian Watkins is meant to be serving a 29 year sentence in a real prison - not a haven for paedophiles.

'I know how evil this man is and people like him will never change and need to be punished severely.

'He and they need to be out of their comfort zone of swapping sick stories with other paedophiles and in a real prison to serve their time.

'If not then where is the punishment for them and justice for the many children and families these evil predators have destroyed?

'You may as well have put them up in an Ibis hotel having a constant paedophile convention.'

She was arrested last year for possession of indecent images of children that Watkins had sent her over the internet but cleared by a jury after a week-long trial.

The court heard she had repeatedly tried to show the images to police and report his paedophile activities for four years before Watkins was arrested.

Watkins was jailed in December 2013 for 29 years after admitting the attempted rape of a baby and the sexual assault of a child under 13.

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 Lostprophets front man, who was jailed for 29 years after admitting the attempted rape of a baby and the sexual assault of a child under 13, was moved from Category A prison HMP Long Lartin

He has been moved to the lower security Category B prison HMP Rye Hill to carry on his sentence.The prison move has caused outrage among child safety campaigners who say Watkins has been placed in a 'haven for paedophiles'

Watkins was sentenced alongside the two women who were the mothers of the children he abused, known only as Woman A and Woman B.

They were jailed for 14 and 17 years respectively.

He was originally sent to the Category A prison HMP Wakefield in Yorkshire - dubbed 'Monster Mansion' because it houses some of the most heinous murderers in the UK including April Jones' paedophile killer Mark Bridger.

Watkins was then moved to fellow Category A prison HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire which houses Soham child killer Ian Huntley, before his latest move to the less secure Category B prison HMP Rye Hill - run by private security firm G4S.

The Ministry of Justice has refused to confirm or deny the prison move but said they were determined to have 'one of the toughest regimes in the world for managing sex offenders'.

An MoJ spokeswoman said: 'On the basis of the available evidence the current strategy is to concentrate sex offenders together.

'By doing this, we aim to place sex offenders in prisons that offer specialist assessment and interventions and take account of research findings that indicate that on balance, sex offenders are more able to concentrate on rehabilitation if co-located away from a non sex offender population.

'The available research that has directly examined the ethos of sex offenders units has consistently shown that prisoners are discouraged from discussing their offences with each other.

'This does not mean that the risk of networking is ignored, and systems are in place to monitor and address this as necessary.

'Apart from the provision of specialist interventions and services, and the expertise and experience of the staff group, there is no particular difference in the regime and facilities available to prisoners with a predominantly sex offender population from other prisons.'

Eight jails in England and Wales now house only sex offenders as the number of abusers has rocketed to more than 11,000.

Jon Bird, operations manager at The National Association for People Abused in Childhood, said: 'It is disturbing that there are serious sex offenders who are able to mix with their own kind.

'We have to recognise there are people in society who have these urges and they have to be treated and one day they are going to be released.

'But by letting them mix solely with people like themselves that does not seem like it will help.

'From the point of view of the survivors who were affected by these horrific crimes it sends out the wrong message.

'We should be punishing these criminals and not letting them swap sick stories, if not other materials.

'We know that on sex offender wings in Category B prisons in the past there have been child abuse videos found along with other contraband such as drugs.'

Mr Bird said there was a 'real concern' about whether Ian Watkins is co-operating fully with his sex offenders treatment and admits to the seriousness of his crimes.

He said: 'We haven't seen anything to say he is and he has been appealing against his sentencing. He needs to recognise what he did was wrong.'