Heartbreaking 999 calls made by Kiena Dawes before her suicide give a harrowing glimpse into the torment she suffered at the hands of her abusive partner.
In one disturbing audio clip, the 23-year-old tells emergency operators her head is ‘pouring with blood’ as she tries to console her crying baby.
Ms Dawes would later write a suicide note saying, ‘Ryan Wellings killed me’, before leaving their nine-month-old daughter with a friend and taking her own life on a railway line in Lancashire on July 22, 2022.
Violent Wellings was yesterday convicted of assualt and coercive control for two years of violence and abuse but but managed to avoid a manslaughter charge.
In the first of two calls made to emergency services Ms Dawes can be heard crying ‘help’ and calling out her address.
Minutes later she rings back saying her ‘phone is going to end up breaking because it’s covered in blood’ and that things are ‘really bad’.
Her baby cries softly in the background of the call at which point the young mother changes her tone to console the infant, saying ‘It’s ok sweetheart, it’s ok. Mummy’s fine.’
On being asked whether she needs an ambulance, Ms Dawes responds, distressed: ‘I’ve just woken up. I was unconscious. It’s absolutely. It’s pouring down my face. But I don’t know what’s happened. Well, I do know what’s happened, but I don’t know what’s happened to the injury.’
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)
The ‘bright and popular’ hairdresser was ‘ground down’ by two-and-a-half years of domestic violence , a jury was told
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
The phone operator then asks the young mother to confirm the name and age of the person who did this to her, which she gives as 28-year-old Ryan Wellings.
In one incident just 11 days before Ms Dawes’ death, on July 11, 2022 Wellings ‘launched’ his girlfriend into a radiator with such force it broke the appliance off the wall, then slammed a door in her face – knocking her out and leaving her with blood pouring from her head.
Ms Dawes called police at least five times reporting domestic problems with Wellings. While she frequently downplayed her abuse to officers – due to threats from her partner – she did make a statement about the assault on July 11.
A separate section of a 999 call played in court sees the abused Ms Dawes report she had been involved in a road accident on July 4, saying: ‘I don’t want to die.’
She told the operator she had been thinking about mental health and ‘didn’t even see the car in front’.
Ms Dawes said: ‘I’ve got a really bad mental health condition that has been getting a lot worse each day.
‘I always write notes all the time in case I just do it one day but I have got a baby and I don’t want to die. I want to be with my baby. I can’t get my head to work. I just want to sleep all the time.’
Ms Dawes told the operator she had been mentally unwell for a long time and took medication for her condition.
Ms Dawes with her baby, in a photo released by Lancashire Police
Ms Dawes, pictured, wrote that she hoped her daughter is ‘kept away from the monster who is called her dad’, jurors heard
The young mother was found dead by British Transport Police on the railway line near Barnacre on July 2
When asked about suicide, she said: ‘I don’t want to die. My head’s just gone. I need some help. I’m trying really hard not to feel like this.’
A jury was previously told Kiena had a diagnosis of Emotionally Unstable Personality Disorder (EUPD) which put her at increased risk of suicide compared to the general population.
Dr Nicholas Kennedy told the jury that in February 2021, Kiena told health professionals she had a long-standing fear of abandonment, which would have made it more difficult to walk away from a ‘toxic’ relationship.
The doctor said she had made previous attempts to take her life which represented her emotional state.
Prosecutors outlined how Wellings cruelly took advantage of Ms Dawes’ vulnerability due to her mental health, and subjected her to two-and-a-half years of coercive and controlling behaviour during their on-off relationship and was repeatedly violent and abusive towards her.
Wellings also sponged off her, unable to hold down work, securing and leaving 22 jobs and draining her of money while she worked two jobs. He claimed £15,000 in Covid loans during lockdown that he went on to spend on hotels, £1,800 golf clubs and drugs.
He would repeatedly lash out at his hairdresser fiancée, 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 two offences Wellings was convicted of each have maximum terms of five years. It has since been revealed that his mother, Lisa Green, and girlfriend, Emma Croft, are both under police investigation for allegedly ‘coaching’ him to give evidence.
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 court heard a ‘pattern’ developed of Wellings being ‘aggressive and violent’ before ‘showering’ Ms Dawes with affection
‘Ryan Wellings, pictured, exploited the vulnerability that this mental health condition generated and he made it worse’
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.
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.
The now-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.
On Monday, Judge Altham thanked jurors for their time following the verdict and excused them from further jury service, should they wish, for the next 15 years.
Wellings will be sentenced on Thursday.
For confidential support, call Samaritans on 116 123, visit samaritans.org or visit https://www.thecalmzone.net/get-support
