A man accused of driving his partner to suicide told a jury: “I’m not a monster, I never have been.”
Ryan Wellings, 30, denies manslaughter after his partner Kiena Dawes took her own life in July 2022. Mum-of-one Kiena, 23, was found dead close to a railway line near Garstang after leaving a note saying she had been “murdered, slowly”, by Wellings.
Within hours of being charged with Kiena’s manslaughter on June 3, 2024, a video was uploaded on Facebook which showed Wellings in a car, singing about the charge and blaming Kiena’s family for her death. Wellings told the jury he was ‘hurting’ when he recorded the video and only intended it for personal use.
Wearing mirrored sunglasses and a blue Tshirt, Wellings could be seen swigging from a bottle of Prosecco, singing: “I’ve been told off an hour ago on a manslaughter charge… it’s all f***ing s**t.” He then went on to name Kiena’s mother, singing she should “take the blame for abandoning her daughter” and called her a “f***ing sl*g.”
Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, said: “What we see here is the real Ryan Wellings.”
Wellings replied: “That’s the Ryan Wellings that hasn’t been to sleep, has just been charged with killing my kid’s mum. Three years of my life. I’ve lost my Mrs by killing herself and I’ve been blamed for it.”
Mr Greaney KC said: “We are seeing Ryan Wellings the bully, Ryan Wellings the entitled person, who thinks he can do what he wants. Ryan Wellings who thinks he can treat people and say to people whatever he wants.”
Wellings said: “I know what I did was wrong. I did some stupid things. That Facebook post has got me where I am now but that is me hurting.” He said he recorded the video but ‘accidentally’ uploaded it, saying he only realised it was online when his girlfriend told him to take it down .
Kiena Dawes
He told the jury that on July 22, 2022, the day Kiena died, she had been looking at posts on his Facebook of him playing with his children. That day, Kiena dropped her daughter with a friend and left a note saying she hoped the baby would be “kept away from the monster that is called her dad.”
Wellings told the jury: “She says that but she also says I’m an amazing dad. If at the time of her taking her life that’s what she thought, that’s what she thought, but she felt differently at different times. She is and she was very poorly at the time.
“I’m not a monster. I never have been.”
Wellings admitted he and Kiena would ‘push and shove’ during arguments. As their relationship went on he became more ‘heavy handed’ when he restrained her or pushed her away, he said.
On July 11, 2022, the pair argued at their flat in Fleetwood, after Kiena moved some sandpaper which Wellings said he needed for work. Wellings admitted he kicked a vaccuum cleaner and said during the argument a radiator came off the wall.
During the argument, Kiena activated a police issued panic alarm, by removing the plug from the wall. Wellings told the jury he did not understand why she had the alarm and had said the relationship could only continue if she left the fob to the device in the car.
As he left the flat, he said he kicked the front door in anger, but said he did not know Kiena was behind it. “I didn’t mean for it to hit her”, he said. Kiena was taken to hospital with a head injury but Wellings denies being responsible for it.
The defendant, from Bispham, Lancs, denies coercive control and ABH at Preston Crown Court. He said any reference in their text exchanges of him ‘hitting’ Kiena referred to him restraining her when she was attacking him.
“I’d never hit a woman”, he said.
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