can't believe ilx has no lostprophets thread

xp to me Also, are we going to just exonerate the world a criminal moves in and say, nah, there's nothing in the star/fan relationship that helps abusers, nothing in the military that does that, nah, the world is innocent, just these evil-doers come along

Hearing under way: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-25412675

the court heard Watkins had said in a phone call after admitting the charges: "It was mega lols. I don't know what everyone is getting freaked out about."

He denied being a paedophile and told the caller he only pleaded guilty to avoid a trial.

liveblog here for the prurient

"The involvement and responsibility of these offences is joint and equal and without the mothers would not have taken place."

this guy is truly a class act

Watkins is now said to be "ashamed and appalled by what has happened".

That's certainly what I would surmise from the phrase "it was megalolz. I don't know what everyone is getting freaked out about."

Sentences in around half an hour, it seems.

compelled to note here that use of the term "megalolz" doubles as a reference to a line of Lostprophets merchandise from a few years back

wonder if it's too late for his defence to present a case like "well my client feels like he got the football man, he's running towards the touchdown and stopping and looking back, mess around, he’ll get tackled"

Watkins' defence lawyers have also told the court that he is not the first rock star to get carried away by the effect of adulation from fans, and end up taking advantage of it.

Not sure the Hammer of the Gods defence works with baby rape.

Th Hammer of the Gods defence shouldn't work with anything.

nothing says "truly sorry" like trying to shift as much blame as possible onto other people

His defence lawyer is a woman. Imagine having to take that case.

The musician held more computer data than the police force who investigated his evil crimes, it was claimed.

Detective Chief Inspector Peter Doyle, who led the investigation, said: "Watkins' data storage size was 27 terabytes - which is five times the size of South Wales Police systems in storage capacity.

"Not all of it was illegal material, but if you need 27 terabytes then you're clearly into that kind of world."

Hmm, that could be a heck of a lot of mp3 files...

Seems like a musician might have a lot of uncompressed audio files of his own recordings, plus backups, which would need a lot of storage, right? Seems weird for the police to draw the conclusion that multi-terabytes of storage equals involvement in 'that kind of world'.

this judge certainly isn't megaloling

xpost - Unless it’s 27 terrabytes of pornographic material and the distinction is being made between the stuff that’s legal and the stuff that isn’t? In which case yah, I can see how 27 TBs of porn could be seen as a wee bit dodge tbh.

you know what they say about 'big data'

29 years

Mother A = 14 years
Mother B = 17 years

correction: 35 years for Watkins

Serve 20 before release, that extra 6 years is just a licence period

Meanwhile, Twitter's automated "related searches" on Ian Watkins names the other defendants.

jail Twitter imo

His defence lawyer is a woman member of civilized society. Imagine having to take that case.

Yeah, you'd think that it'd be pretty distressing to have to read all the statements and case papers on this. fuck.

Seems like a musician might have a lot of uncompressed audio files of his own recordings, plus backups, which would need a lot of storage, right? Seems weird for the police to draw the conclusion that multi-terabytes of storage equals involvement in 'that kind of world'.

Uncompressed 24-bit 96KHz stereo audio takes up 2GB per hour, which means he could store 13,500 hours of it on his 27 terabyte drives.

Even allowing for using 100 stereo tracks of audio per song (haha) and assuming each song was five minutes long, that means he still would've had space for 1,620 songs - about three times as many as Dylan's ever written.

Don't think he's gonna be releasing any of those tracks anytime soon though.

this is assuming that those 27 TB are anywhere near full god why am i even

South Wales police have around $150 worth of storage. great job.

Good luck anyone on Twitter with the misfortune to have the same name as either of the co-defendants. That's going to get nasty.

@AVB

jesus christ i assumed "megalolz" was some twat commenting on the case not a thing he actually said after his conviction

he still would've had space for 1,620 songs - about three times as many as Dylan's ever written.

And about a fifth of what Robert Pollard's written

also, so immensely depressing that the ex-gf who reported him again and again wasn't believed. wonder how much of that was because she's a former sex worker

and room for 3/4 of dream theaters guitar solos

https://www.facebook.com/IanWatkinsSupporters

Judge's summing up is at http://www.judiciary.gov.uk/Resources/JCO/Documents/Judgments/r-v-watkins-and-others.pdf but seriously do not read it.

How stupid would you need to be to Like anything on that page? Christ.

Fuck me.

Having made the mistake of not heeding EK's advice, seriously seriously do not read the summing up.

gave up reading by page 5.

yeah, i'm good thanks

the real story here is how the South Wales Police system uses only 5 TB total, that's the size of the HD of a kid who wants to download all the eps of South Park in 1080p

He was emphatic as he was growing up through his teenage years that he would never drink, never do drugs. That’s what he told us.

‘Whether that was to reassure us as parents, I don’t know. But obviously something went wrong in later years. I think it coincided with being in the American scene.

‘He started giving interviews and there were concerns that perhaps he was just trying to shock, or create an impression or trying to push boundaries to reinvent himself and the band.’

Watkins’ younger brother Daniel, 24, added: ‘They were all teetotal. We have no idea what happened. That was when they decided to base themselves in LA, which is obviously a totally different culture to the South Wales valleys.’

Got to page 7 of the report. Pretty fucking far from megalolz

the judge claims that the children involved will inevitably find out what happened to them as adults even though they will be living with foster parents etc.....like surely there are means available to conceal their identities so that doesn't happen

i wd imagine that there will still be the possibility of some kind of contact, at some point, with their birth parents

also i think there are ethical questions about deliberately withholding that kind of information from people as they become adults

xxxpost - so it's America's fault?

Why does the public crave this kind of shallow reassurance every time? It's some stranger's fault, he wasn't one of us, the rest of us are still normal, we're all safe again, all of which are just not true, but still have to be repeated constantly.

i don't know what's recommended in cases such as this, but i would say let the birth mothers live the rest of their lives not knowing where their children are and withhold the info. that may not be "ethical" i guess but i'm not sure what good can come from the other option.

that's the only ethical option in these circumstances