E! ‘sorry’ for using Steps photo on Watkins story

POP star Ian Watkins has received a public apology at the High Court over the mistaken use of his photograph on a celebrity news website reporting the guilty pleas of Lostprophets singer Ian Watkins to serious sexual offences.

Ian H Watkins has received an apology at the High Court. Picture: PA

A judge in London heard that the musician and actor, also known as Ian “H” Watkins or “H” from the band Steps, had already been ”receiving abuse as a result of people confusing the two Ian Watkins” before the error over the photograph was made.

He received an apology today from E! Entertainment Television, a US company which operates a television channel E! and website E! Online, covering celebrity news.

His solicitor John Reid told the judge that the defendant, E! Entertainment Television, “reported the guilty plea of Ian Watkins of the Lostprophets in an article on E! Online”, adding: “However, the defendant mistakenly included a photograph of the claimant, Ian ‘H’ Watkins of Steps, instead of Ian Watkins of the Lostprophets.”

He said: “The error quickly came to the attention of the defendant, which promptly replaced the photograph with the correct one.”

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