A violent boyfriend whose fiancée went on to kill herself after enduring years of sickening abuse at his hands was today cleared of manslaughter.
Ryan Wellings was found not guilty of killing 23-year-old Kiena Dawes through a sustained campaign of domestic abuse. Ms Dawes’ family wept as the verdict was read out, while her tormentor turned and blew a kiss at his current girlfriend.
The 30-year-old is the first defendant to be tried before a jury accused of the unlawful killing of his partner after her suicide following domestic violence.
Despite being cleared of the charge, he was convicted of assault and coercive control after jurors heard how he would repeatedly lash out at his partner, beating her while she was pregnant with his child, as well as threatening to drown her in a bath, drill her teeth and ‘make her look like Katie Piper’ by throwing acid over her.
Wellings urged his girlfriend to kill herself, told her that ‘hitting you is like hitting a man’ and, on one occasion, dunked her head in a bath and said: ‘Say goodbye to your baby’.
In a final incident days before her suicide, Ms Dawes was ‘launched’ into a bathroom radiator with such force it broke the appliance off the wall. Wellings then slammed a door in her face, knocking her out and leaving her with blood pouring from her head.
Having felt ‘unsupported’ by police after being left bloodied by the attack, Ms Dawes then took her own life on a railway line in July 2022, having left her nine-month-old daughter with a friend.
In a suicide note, the hairdresser wrote: ‘I was murdered. Ryan Wellings killed me. He ruined every bit of strength I had left. I had dreams. I had a future at one point. That was taken away from me.’
Nicholas Allen admitted before his trial in 2017 the manslaughter of his partner, Justene Reece. He is the only other man to have been convicted of manslaughter after his partner took their own life following a campaign of domestic abuse.
Kiena Dawes (pictured), 23, went missing from her home in Fleetwood, Lancashire, on July 22, 2022 before taking her own life
Ryan Wellings (pictured) was accused of carrying out a two-and-a-half year campaign of domestic abuse which led her to kill herself. But a jury has cleared him of manslaughter
Just 11 days before her suicide, Ms Dawes suffered an horrific head wound after being attacked by her partner (Ms Dawes is seen with blood over her face in an image released today by police)
The prosecution claimed Wellings took advantage of Ms Dawes’s vulnerability, due to her mental health, and was repeatedly violent and abusive towards her.
He also sponged off her, unable to hold down work, securing and leaving 22 jobs and draining her of money while she worked two jobs. Wellings claimed £15,000 in Covid loans during lockdown he spent on hotels, £1,800 golf clubs and drugs.
This abuse was a ‘significant factor’ in her decision to take her own life, prosecutors said. She was later found dead on railway tracks, near Garstang, Lancashire, after being hit by a train.
Wellings’ defence team insisted the injuries Ms Dawes had suffered before her death had been as a result of Wellings’ attempts to restrain her or had been inflicted accidentally.
They suggested that descriptions of the landscape gardener’s behaviours by her had been either inaccurate, untrue or exaggerated.
And they claimed that despite the young mother’s relationship with her partner being a ‘recipe for disaster’ – Wellings was not guilty of driving her to suicide through domestic violence.
Defence counsel John Jones KC told Preston Crown Court Ms Dawes’ suicide was not caused ‘in any significant degree’ by his client.
He added the couple’s ‘party lifestyle’ had been a ‘recipe for disaster’ and their ‘fairytale’ relationship was to end in turmoil because of Wellings’ temper, Ms Dawes’ mental health difficulties, and their joint abuse of cocaine.
‘This corrosive and destructive combination was to bring heartache to them both, and death to one,’ Mr Jones told the jury.
‘It was a recipe for disaster. Mental health on one side, drug abuse and temper on the other. We know that. They did not know or appreciate it at the time, that’s the point.
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Kiena Dawes (pictured) took her own life on July 22, 2022, after leaving the couple’s nine-month-old daughter with a friend
Ms Dawes’ was left with a one inch gash on her forehead after Wellings slammed a door in her face during a row just 11 days before she took her life
‘You must determine what caused that death. We say it was not caused in any significant degree by Ryan Wellings.’
Mr Jones said on ‘four if not five’ occasions, Ms Dawes had made ‘clear and determined’ suicide attempts, and that at least three of those were before she ever met Wellings.
He told the jury the prosecution case was ‘predicated on the assertion’ that but for the behaviour of the defendant, Ms Dawes would not have taken her own life.
During the trial, jurors were told that after being charged with manslaughter, Wellings downed a bottle of prosecco and went on a cocaine binge before recording a vile video taunting Ms Dawes’ grieving family.
In the clip, shared on Facebook, the landscape gardener blamed Ms Dawes’ mother for her daughter’s death and called her a ‘f****** s**g’.
The video showed Wellings being driven in a car, wearing sunglasses and holding a bottle, saying: ‘I’m driving around with a bottle of prosecco.
The court heard a ‘pattern’ developed of Wellings being ‘aggressive and violent’ before ‘showering’ Ms Dawes with affection
‘I have been told off an hour ago on a manslaughter charge. It’s all f****** s***.
‘Angela Dawes (Kiena’s mother), you need to take the blame for abandoning your daughter and going to Greece.
‘You are a f****** s**g.’
Ms Dawes, who had struggled with poor mental health, first met Wellings in January 2020 and was ‘swept off her feet’, her mother told the court.
Within a week Wellings would have a tattoo of her name and face on his body and after just three months he would propose.
But friends of Ms Dawes said the ‘fairytale’ relationship soon ‘turned into a nightmare’, with Wellings violently attacking her while she was pregnant.
Wellings – who was branded a ‘bully’ in court – had threatened to use a drill on her teeth and douse her in acid to disfigure her, jurors were told. He had even tried to drown her in a baby bath during one explosive attack, the court heard.
The 30-year-old would accuse Ms Dawes of cheating on him and threatened to toss her late father’s ashes out of the window during one row.
In February 2021, Ms Dawes discovered she was pregnant with Wellings’ child, later saying both were ‘over the moon’.
From that point she stopped taking her medication and her mental health took a ‘downturn’, she later said in an unsigned police statement.
Wellings said when his relationship with Ms Dawes was good it was ‘perfect’, but it was bad at times a result of their ‘party lifestyle’
‘The emotional abuse was on a daily basis,’ she said.
‘He would talk to other women on social media and was cheating.’
Ms Dawes’ mental health condition resulted in increased impulsivity, poor self-esteem and difficulty in relationships, the court heard.
While she suffered from emotionally unstable personality disorder, Wellings ‘exploited’ her vulnerability and ‘made it worse’.
The court heard a ‘pattern’ developed of Wellings being ‘aggressive and violent’ before ‘showering’ Ms Dawes with affection.
Wellings would call her ‘a psychopath and a freak’ and tell her the baby would be taken off her after she was born, she said.
‘In the end, it was to grind Kiena down,’ Mr Greaney said.
A final assault on July 11, 2022 – just 11 days before her suicide on the West Coast Main Line near Garstang, Lancashire – proved a ‘significant factor’ in her decision to take her own life, Mr Greaney added.
In a text message to a friend, sent three days before her suicide, a despondent Ms Dawes wrote: ‘I was in hospital longer than he was in the cells. The world is f****d and I hate it.’
During the trial, jurors were told how police had previously installed panic alarms and changed the locks at her home after an assault in March 2022.
The ‘bright and popular’ hairdresser was ‘ground down’ by two-and-a-half years of domestic violence , a jury was told
She said Wellings had punched a wall, thrown a steak at the wall and ‘tried to drown her in the baby bath’.
Police made safeguarding referrals for Ms Dawes and her baby daughter, who was in the flat at the time.
However on July 11, a row broke out between Ms Dawes and Wellings when she moved some of his belongings while vacuuming.
During the argument, Wellings demanded that Ms Dawes return the engagement ring he had given her then threw it out of the window.
With their daughter ‘screaming’ on the sofa, she managed to push Wellings out of the flat, she later told police, only for him to fling the door open, causing her to black out.
Jurors were shown graphic injuries of the gashed forehead Ms Dawes sustained, with blood pouring down her face.
Wellings was arrested on suspicion of ABH, telling officers that Ms Dawes had attacked him and sustained the injuries while he was trying to get out of the flat.
He was released on bail with conditions which included not contacting Ms Dawes.
However, on July 17 she received a call from his former partner, Kayleigh Anderson – someone who Wellings had previously been convicted of attacking.
Ms Dawes, pictured, wrote that she hoped her daughter is ‘kept away from the monster who is called her dad’, jurors heard
It did not connect, but Ms Dawes called the number back, then dialled 999 saying Wellings had been on the other end ‘threatening her’, only to be told that the call did not amount to a breach of his bail conditions.
After her death, jurors heard how Wellings taunted Ms Dawes’ family with a video clip – shared during a booze a drugs binge shortly after being charged with manslaughter.
Prosecutor Mr Greaney told Wellings he uploaded the video ‘on purpose to intimidate the Dawes family and show them who is boss’.
‘What we see there is the real Ryan Wellings. Ryan Wellings the bully,’ the prosecutor added.
‘The entitled person. The person who thinks he can do what he wants to people and say what he wants.’
Wellings replied: ‘I did not know what I was doing. I know I did wrong and did some stupid things. That’s me hurting. Being blamed for killing my kid’s mum, the woman I loved.’
The defendant said he was sleep-deprived and had downed bottles of prosecco and taken drugs at the time but maintained he uploaded the video to Facebook by accident and later deleted it.
Mr Greaney moved on to the suicide note left by Ms Dawes.
He pointed out she did not blame her family for her death, writing: ‘I will always love my family. I love them unconditionally.’
Mr Greaney said the note blamed Wellings for her death, calling him a ‘monster’ and a ‘bully’.
‘She says you killed her in that note, just hours before she took her own life.
‘At the time Kiena took her own life, she was thinking about you and regarded you as a monster.’
Wellings, wiping away tears, replied: ‘I’m not a monster. Never have been.’
Samaritans are available on 116 123 or at www.samaritans.org
