Wife of Ian Watkins’ Lostprophets bandmate reveals how ‘friends vanished overnight’ and they were left with ‘nothing’ – despite having nothing to do with paedophile’s vile crimes

The wife of paedophile rocker Ian Watkins’s Lostprophets bandmate has revealed how ‘friends vanished overnight’ when the former frontman’s vile crimes were exposed.  

Syirin Said said she and her guitarist husband of 17 years Lee Gaze, 50, had been left with nothing and had to rebuild their lives with no support. 

The mother, a former singer of Malaysian girl group M’Steen, at times looked emotional in a video posted on her TikTok.

Breaking her silence for the first time since child abuser Watkins, 48, was jailed for his heinous crimes in 2013 and days after he was killed in prison, Said said his death had ‘brought back a lot of emotions and experiences’. 

Watkins had been serving 29 years for a string of child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a fan’s baby daughter. 

Said hit back at those posting comments on social media about Lostprophets with ‘zero context, zero empathy’ for victims, former bandmates, and their families’ and said it had spurned her on to ‘speak up’. 

Said told how a ‘curse’ had befallen her household when Watkins was exposed as a paedophile and they couldn’t even ‘whisper’ the band’s name. 

‘Do you know how much that hurt us?’ she said. 

‘I taught my kids to know what’s good, what’s bad, and always to hold on to the good – like the music that their dad created that touched many hearts.

‘One man’s wrong doesn’t bury decades of real hard work.’

Gaze founded the Lostprophets alongside Watkins in 1997 in Pontypridd, South Wales.

The band released five studio albums, four of which were in the UK top ten, and sold millions of records across the world.

But Lostprophets announced it would be parting ways a month before Watkins’s sentencing.

Said said that for 10 years the band had been forgotten about with radio and television banning their songs and ‘friends and connections vanished overnight’.

She said: ‘I can’t believe I’m saying and posting this. It’s been over a decade and I haven’t said a word until now.

‘But seeing Lostprophets posts by people with zero context, zero empathy – not to the victims, the band members, their families, including mine – makes me speak up.

‘I am not speaking on behalf of my husband or the band members. I am speaking on behalf of me, my family, my kids, and our truths.

‘For decades my husband poured his heart and soul into writing epic songs, loved by their fans. His band touched so many lives positively when you think about Last Train Home, Rooftop, Burn Burn.’

Syrin revealed how her family were deeply hurt by his crimes – but also by comments about the band who knew nothing of his heinous crimes.

‘Our family had to rebuild from nothing, no support. These posts with no heart, no mention of the victims still healing or families like ours still hurting, trying to get by, it’s like we’re invisible again. This isn’t a trend. It’s our life.

‘I just want to thank those who messaged, called, commented, and DM’d with care and compassion. You see us, you appreciate what we went through, and we appreciate you.

‘But if you’re posting just for likes, views, engagement with zero thought for the lives broken, please step back. 

‘Be kind. And perhaps I don’t know, acknowledge that others hurt too. And if you were hurt by this in any capacity, I hope you’re finding ways to heal, like we are.’

Rashid Gedel, 25, and Samuel Dodsworth, 43, have been charged with murder over the alleged attack at HMP Wakefield last Saturday morning.

In 2013, Watkins was given 14 and 15-year consecutive prison terms for engaging in sexual activity with a child and the attempted rape of an 11-month-old baby.

He was also convicted of 11 other offences at Cardiff Crown Court – with those sentences running alongside his 29-year term.

Two of his co-defendants known as Mother A and Mother B – the parents of children he assaulted – were also incarcerated for 14 and 17 years respectively.

His former bandmates, who reformed without him as new band No Devotion after he was jailed, thought it was a ‘mistake’ at first when he was first arrested.

They told the BBC in 2014, after founding the new group, they had drifted apart from Watkins in the months before allegations about him began.

Questioned at the time about whether they knew of the frontman’s depravity, Mr Gaze said: ‘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.

‘It wasn’t like, “That’s happened, let’s run away.” It was like, “We are sticking together,” which I think is such a bold statement.’