Kiena Dawes: Ryan Wellings on trial for alleged manslaughter as jurors hear ‘murdered slowly’ suicide note

DISTRESSING CONTENT WARNING

A young mother left a note saying she had been “murdered slowly” by her abusive boyfriend before lying in the path of a high-speed train, a court heard.

Kiena Dawes, 23, was described as “bright and popular” before jurors were told she had been “ground down” by two-and-a-half years of domestic violence at the hands of Ryan Wellings.

Having felt “unsupported” by police after being left with a bloodied face in an alleged assault by the 30-year-old, she left their nine-month-old daughter with a friend before taking her own life.

A note was found on her phone in which she wrote: “Ryan Wellings killed me.”

Writing that she “went through pain no one could imagine”, Ms Dawes added: “I was murdered. Slowly. They tortured me, till there was nothing left. I lost my fight but I didn’t give up my battle.”

She added: “I hope my life saves another by police services acting faster.”

Ms Dawes wrote that “worst of all” was having to leave behind the daughter she had with Wellings.

“Please can the world protect her... The world turned their back on me.”

Ms Dawes’s final words were on Tuesday read to a jury as Wellings stood trial for her manslaughter.

He denies the charge, along with counts of controlling and coercive behaviour and assault causing actual bodily harm.

Wellings treated hairdresser Ms Dawes in “a thoroughly abusive way” and subjected her to repeated physical assaults, prosecutor Paul Greaney, KC, told the trial at Preston Crown Court.

A final assault on July 11, 2022 – just 11 days before her suicide on the West Coast Main Line near Garstang, Lancashire – was a “significant factor” in her decision to take her own life, he said.

While she suffered from emotionally unstable personality disorder, he “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.

“In the end, it was to grind Kiena down,” Mr Greaney said.

In messages read to the jury, Ms Dawes told Wellings he had a “bad demon” inside him and made her feel “worthless”.

He replied: “I promise I won’t hurt you any more than I have.”

In another, after Ms Dawes accused him of “terrorising” her, Wellings replied: “I’m the way I am. What your excuse?”

During one row in January 2022 Ms Dawes alleged Wellings took out a drill, threatening to “drill my teeth out of my mouth”.

On July 11, 2022, Ms Dawes dialled 999 saying Wellings had assaulted her after flying into a rage while she was vacuuming.

Jurors were shown graphic injuries of the gashed forehead Ms Dawes sustained. He was arrested on suspicion of actual bodily harm, then released on bail with conditions including not contacting Ms Dawes.

However, on July 17 she received a call from his former partner and rang the number back, afterwards telling police that Wellings had been on the other end “threatening her”.

An officer concluded the call did not amount to a breach of his bail – a decision Mr Greaney said “may represent a misunderstanding of the law”.

Ms Dawes was “left feeling unsupported by the police” in the days before her suicide, he added.

Jurors were told that Wellings’s defence is understood to be that messages sent by Ms Dawes about his behaviour were “inaccurate” and her allegations “either untrue or exaggerated”.

Earlier Judge Robert Altham, the Honorary Recorder of Preston, warned jurors it was “natural” for them to experience “feelings of sadness, feelings of sympathy”. But they would need to “recognise sympathy and emotion when it crops up and put it to one side” and deal with the evidence in a “cold and analytical” manner.

Wellings, formerly of Bispham, denies all the charges.

The trial continues.

Lifeline: 13 11 14.

If you or someone you know is experiencing family violence, phone 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732).