A thuggish boyfriend who subjected his vulnerable fiancée to years of sickening domestic abuse and brutal beatings – but was cleared of her manslaughter after she killed herself – has today been jailed for six-and-a-half years.
Ryan Wellings was cleared of the unlawful killing of new mother Kiena Dawes, 23, who left a suicide note calling her partner a ‘monster’ who had ‘killed me’.
She left her heartbreaking final message and her nine-month-old daughter, with a friend before taking her own life on a railway line on July 22 2022.
Woman beater Wellings was the first defendant to be tried before a jury accused of the unlawful killing of his partner after her suicide following domestic violence, but was found not guilty at Preston Crown Court on Monday.
However, he was convicted of assault and coercive and controlling behaviour over a two-year period, with the unrepentant abuser turning and blowing a kiss to his new girlfriend as the verdict was read out, while Ms Dawes’ sister burst into tears.
Jailing Wellings for six-and-a-half years today, Judge Altham told the thug he had shown ‘no remorse’, adding: ‘You’re a clear danger to any partner you may have in future.’
‘Entitled, aggressive bully’ Wellings appeared to smirk throughout proceedings but he displayed no visible sign of emotion as the shameless yob was ordered to leave the dock to begin his stint behind bars.
In an emotional statement read in court, Ms Dawes’ heartbroken mother Angela Dawes warned: ‘Whenever Wellings is released from prison, I will be extremely concerned that he will do this again, he is a dangerous man.
‘I am at a loss as to consider what impact him being released from prison will have on other women and children.’
Jurors heard how Wellings repeatedly lashed out at the hairdresser, 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 dousing her with acid.
The 30-year-old ‘bully’ also goaded Ms Dawes to kill herself, boasted 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’.
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 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 by police)
Smirking woman beater Wellings was today branded a ‘danger’ as he was jailed for more than six years. He is pictured with Ms Dawes
Beginning his sentencing remarks this afternoon, Judge Altham told Wellings he had first attacked Kiena in 2020 in a ‘fit of irrational jealousy’.
Thereafter he ‘repeatedly assaulted her and abused her,’ he said, including inflicting a black eye while she was pregnant with their daughter.
Wellings also threatened to throw acid in Kiena’s face on more than one occasion and told her she was ‘fat and ugly’.
‘Knowing her previous attempts at suicide and her fragile mental health you frequently told her she may as well kill herself,’ the judge added.
By contrast to the demeaning manner in which Wellings treated her, everyone who knew Kiena regarded her as a ‘wonderful person’, the judge said.
He said that while Wellings had been acquitted of manslaughter, it was clear that the abuse he inflicted had a ‘serious effect’ on her.
On the count of controlling and coercive behaviour, Wellings received a four-year sentence. For the ABH against Ms Dawes he got an extra two years.
For admitting an offence of ABH on friend Scott Fletcher, Wellings was given six months. The two sentences will run consecutively to reflect his ‘overall criminality’.
Ms Dawes’s family and friends, who sat in the public gallery for the sentencing hearing, wept in court – but declined to comment on Wellings’ sentence.
In an emotional impact statement read out in court, Ms Dawes’ mother said she had been ‘robbed’ of her daughter
Speaking outside Preston Crown Court after the verdicts were delivered on Monday, Ms Dawes’s mother Angela (pictured) apologised for not getting ‘justice’
In an impact statement read by prosecutor Paul Greaney KC, Ms Dawes’ mother – who has cared for daughter’s baby girl since Kiena’s suicide – said she struggled to express the impact of losing her ‘beautiful gem’ of a daughter.
‘I honestly can’t put into words just how much it breaks my heart that her beautiful daughter doesn’t have a mummy because of that monster,’ she said.
‘I just wish with all my heart I could bring her back and say ‘it’s okay, you’re safe now’.’
Widowed Mrs Dawes said she had been ‘robbed’ of watching Kiena play the role of mother to her daughter.
She has been caring for the couple’s daughter since Kiena’s death and revealed that she had ‘already asked me where her mother is’.
Contemplating explaining the truth to the child was ‘impossible’, she added.
Mrs Dawes said she hoped no woman ever had to go through what Kiena did.
Ring video shows Ms Dawes walking up to the door of her friend’s house with her child in a carrier
Ms Dawes, pictured, wrote that she hoped her daughter is ‘kept away from the monster who is called her dad’, jurors heard
She said that when Kiena came to stay with her for respite during the abuse she suffered at Wellings’ hands, ‘I would see a light come back on’.
‘But Wellings always found a way to take back control and take her strength away,’ the heartbroken mother added.
She branded Wellings ‘dangerous’ and said she dreaded the prospect of him being released from prison.
In her own statement, Ms Dawes’ grandmother Irene Ball said Kiena’s daughter had her mother’s smile.
‘Every time I see it I get a lump in my throat,’ she said in the statement, also read by Mr Greaney.
‘Her death is a huge loss and she will never be forgotten.
A third statement was read from Kiena’s brother Kynan, 32, a former friend of Wellings who introduced the couple to one another.
‘I find it personally disgusting that men hit women,’ he said.
‘I hope the sentence Wellings receives shows people worldwide why this behaviour is not okay.
‘People need to realise you can’t go around hurting people you’re supposed to love.’
Kynan said Wellings had shown ‘absolutely no remorse’.
Wellings would now spend the rest of his life exposed as ‘an abuser and a person who beats up women’, he added.
‘I want people to see that domestic violence is not okay and men should respect their partners by showing them nothing but love and kindness,’ Kynan said.
He thanked police for believing Kiena and for posthumously fulfilling her desire for Wellings to be held responsible for her ordeal.
‘Perhaps more importantly the world now knows what a monster he is,’ he added.
Friends and relatives wept quietly as the statements were read out.
Heavily-tattooed Wellings sat at the back of court throughout staring straightahead.
He is also being sentenced today for a second offence of ABH over a drink-fuelled attack on a friend in 2023.
Jurors previously heard Ms Dawes, a hairdresser from Fleetwood in Lancashire, had suffered two years of violence and abuse at the hands of Wellings.
She had been diagnosed with an emotionally unstable personality disorder, resulting in increased impulsivity, poor self-esteem and difficulty in relationships, a condition allegedly exploited by the defendant.
Kiena had attempted to take her own life in the past, before her relationship with Wellings and his lawyers told the court her suicide was due to ‘multiple factors’.
Bubbly and happy-go-lucky, she had been ‘swept off her feet’ after meeting Wellings, a landscape gardener from Bispham, who had a previous conviction for battering his ex-partner, the mother of his twin girls.
‘Bully’ Wellings subjected Ms Dawes to repeated attacks during their ‘toxic’ relationship
The court heard a ‘pattern’ developed of Wellings being ‘aggressive and violent’ before ‘showering’ Ms Dawes with affection
Wellings had Ms Dawes’ name and face tattooed on his body within a week of meeting, and proposed marriage within three months.
But Ms Dawes later said her ‘fairy tale’ turned into a ‘nightmare’ with Wellings, who had a vicious temper and regularly enjoyed cocaine and drink binges, the court heard.
Described by prosecutor Paul Greaney KC as an ‘entitled, aggressive bully’ and by Ms Dawes’ friends as a ‘horrible little b***ard’ with a jealous streak, he did not like being answered back to.
His abuse of Ms Dawes included regular slapping and ‘ragging’ by her hair and threats to use a drill to take out her teeth, and ‘make her look like Katie Piper‘ by throwing acid in her face.
After she became pregnant, Wellings gave her a black eye and began criticising her weight, calling her a ‘fat little bitch’ while contacting escorts and prostitutes online.
Friends and her mother warned Ms Dawes to ‘run a mile’ from ‘toxic’ Wellings, but a pattern developed of break-up and make-up, as he made excuses for his behaviour.
More than once, police were called, but Wellings threatened Ms Dawes that she would have their daughter taken off them if she told them what was happening, so she declined to help prosecute him.
Prosecutor Mr Greaney read Ms Dawes’ suicide note to jurors:
‘The end. I fought hard, I fought long. I went through pain no-one could imagine.
‘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.’
Speaking during the sentencing hearing on Thursday, Mr Greaney said the offences Wellings had been convicted of were made ‘more serious’ because they related to domestic violence.
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He told the court that although Wellings was acquitted of Kiena’s manslaughter, the verdict had ‘triggered an important public debate’ about the circumstances in which such a conviction could be secured.
In relation to the count of coercive and controlling behaviour in an intimate relationship, which carries a maximum sentence of five years imprisonment, Mr Greaney submitted that Wellings’ actions had been ‘intended to maximise Kiena’s fear and distress’.
He highlighted an incident in March 2022 when Kiena said Wellings held a drill in front of her and threatened ‘to drill the teeth out of my mouth’.
Wellings also threatened to throw acid in her face, causing her ‘fear and distress’.
His actions were ‘intended to humiliate and degrade’, and although he was acquitted of her manslaughter they formed part of the ‘background’ to Kiena’s death, Mr Greaney said.
It therefore amounted to an ‘exceptionally serious’ example of coercive and controlling behaviour, the prosecutor said.
Wellings admitted getting ‘heavy-handed’ with Ms Dawes, but claimed any injuries she suffered were accidental or as a result of him trying to restrain her.
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
A final battering ‘broke’ Ms Dawes, leaving her needing hospital treatment. This time she did make a statement to police and her tormentor was arrested.
He then breached his bail conditions but was not locked up, leaving Ms Dawes feeling let down by police. Four days later she took her own life.
The court heard Ms Dawes had received a call from his former partner, Kayleigh Anderson – someone who Wellings had previously been convicted of attacking – on July 17.
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’s 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.’
Ms Dawes with her baby, in a photo released by Lancashire Police
The young mother was found dead by British Transport Police on the railway line near Barnacre on July 2
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.
After his convicytion, Kiena’s mother, Angela Dawes described her daughter as the ‘sweetest, kindest and gentlest person’, adding: ‘I truly hope no other young lady or child has to go through what he did to my daughter and her baby and I just wish with all my heart that I could bring her back and say, it’s OK, you’re safe now.’
In an emotional statement surrounded by family, she added: ‘I’m finding it almost impossible to put it into words just how big of an impact losing Kiena has been on all the family, her beautiful baby girl and all of her friends.
‘Kiena was a rare gem, she brought so much love and kindness to this world and to everyone that loved her.
‘She was an extremely beautiful girl and was quite truly the sweetest, kindest, gentlest person I have ever known.
‘Kiena is missed so very much, every second of every day. Her baby girl was brought to my home a few hours after Kiena was found and has been in my full time care every since that tragic day.
‘I cannot put it into words just how much it breaks my heart that her beautiful baby girl doesn’t have her mummy here because of that monster.
‘I will never forget the day when three CID officers came to my house shortly after I lost Kiena, and I simply said ‘Ryan Wellings killed my baby and I will fight for her justice’.
‘I truly hope that no other young lady or child has to go through what he did to my daughter and her baby.
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’
Kiena Dawes and her mother Angela are pictured in happier times. Kiena’s mother gave a heartbreaking statement outside of court after the verdict on Monday
‘I just wish with all my heart that I could bring her back and say ‘It’s OK, you are safe now’.
‘Although a manslaughter conviction has not been achieved today, the case and convictions of controlling and coercive behaviour and assault clearly demonstrates the perpetrators of domestic abuse will be held to account and imprisoned for what they have done.
‘It cannot bring back my baby girl as this has happened all too late for her.’
During his sentencing, the court heard that in addition to a conviction of battery over an attack against his previous partner, Ms Anderson, in 2019, which the trial jury were told about, Wellings had other convictions dating back to his teens.
When he was 16 he was given a referral order for burglary, and in 2011 – when he was 17 – he received a conditional discharge for using threatening, abusive or insulting language or behaviour with intent to cause fear of violence.
Later that year Wellings was given a youth rehabilitation order for criminal damage.
Mr Greaney said Wellings ‘represents a clear and present danger to any partner’.
He highlighted ‘aggravating factors’ including how Wellings took steps to prevent Kiena reporting his behaviour, and the fact she was vulnerable as a result of her emotionally unstable personality disorder.
The condition resulted in increased impulsivity, poor self-esteem and difficulty in relationships.
Mr Greaney told Judge Altham that Wellings had been convicted of ‘the cowardly bullying of a vulnerable young woman over the course of more than two years’.
But during his trial, defence counsel John Jones KC told Preston Crown Court Ms Dawes’s 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’s temper, Ms Dawes’s 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.
‘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.
Speaking after Wellings’s sentencing, DCI Andy Fallows, of Lancashire Police, said: ‘My thoughts today are with Kiena and the Dawes family in what has been another extremely challenging day for them. Listening to the harrowing victim impact statements read out in court, it is clear how truly loved Kiena was and how much she continues to be missed.
‘While I am satisfied Ryan Wellings has been given a custodial sentence for his abhorrent, sustained and cowardly conduct towards Kiena, I know no sentence will ever be enough for the Dawes family.
‘While lessons will undoubtedly be learned from this case, I want to take this opportunity to appeal directly to anyone who finds themself in an abusive relationship or knows or suspects someone else might be. Please make contact with the authorities or reach out to domestic abuse organisations for help and support. You are not alone and there is help out there for you.’
Three Lancashire Police officers are facing disciplinary hearings over the case.
Only one other defendant has been convicted in such circumstances before, Nicholas Allen, who admitted before his trial in 2017 the manslaughter of his partner Justene Reece.
From 2020-2023, 723 domestic abuse-related deaths were identified by police in England and Wales, of which 216 were suspected victim suicides, one study found.
- Samaritans are available on 116 123 or at www.samaritans.org/how-we-can-help/contact-samaritan/
