Steps star Ian ‘H’ Watkins in Google paedophile mix-up hours after court apology

The pop star became the victim of another mishap, this time made by Google News

Former Steps singer Ian ‘H’ Watkins received a full apology in open court for his image being used to illustrate a story about convicted paedophile Ian Watkins from the Lostprophets. (Getty)

The abuse just never ends for entirely innocent Steps pop star Ian ‘H’ Watkins.

Just hours after he was granted a High Court open apology for his image being wrongly used by E! Online to illustrate an article about convicted paedophile Ian Watkins of Lostprophets, he became the victim of another mishap, this time made by Google News.

The search engine's algorithm system had mistakenly placed a profile thumbnail picture of the star from a BBC story and used it with a CBS News headline that read: Ex-singer Ian Watkins gets 29 years for child sex assault.

Taking to Twitter to voice his rage over the incident, H' posted the following:

He later added:

The news comes just hours after an apology was made in the High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division in order to resolve the matter between the 90s pop star and the E! Entertainment Television LLC.

The error quickly came to the attention of the Defendant which promptly replaced the photograph with the correct one, said 'H' Watkins' lawyer John Reid of Russells Solicitors.

It also promptly added an Editor's Note to the article stating, 'This story was originally published with an image of Ian 'H' Watkins of the band Steps rather than Ian Watkins of the Lostprophets. E! Online deeply regrets this matter'.

The Defendant also promptly emailed and telephoned the Claimant's management to apologise to the Claimant.

The Defendant is here today formally to apologise to the Claimant for the distress and damage caused by the publication of the wrong photograph.

On behalf of the Defendant, I confirm everything said by Mr Reid for the Claimant and apologise for the distress and damage caused by the publication of the photograph, Timothy Pinto of Taylor Wessing for E! Online said.

The singer confirmed the resolution on Twitter and Facebook, posting: As many of you will know, on 27 November E! Online mistakenly published a photograph of me alongside an article reporting the case of the convicted paedophile, Ian Watkins, of the band Lostprophets.

In Court this morning E! have publicly apologised to me and a statement has been read in court to make the position clear.

This was not something that I did lightly but it was important to me that a public statement was made so that there is no confusion going forward.

I am really pleased that it has been resolved so quickly so that my family and I can try and move on from what has been an extremely distressing time. Thanks once again to those who have supported me xx[sic]

No details of whether a confidential settlement for libel was made were given and 'H' Watkins himself was not present at the hearing.

Ian Watkins of Lostprophets was sentenced to 35 years in jail for a string of child sex offences, including the attempted rape of a baby.

Described as a committed and determined paedophile during his sentencing,  judge Mr Justice Royce told Watkins had used his power over fawning young fans to exploit them and persuaded two women to help satisfy what a judge called his insatiable lust by allowing him to abuse their young children.