Kiena Dawes: Fiancé guilty of 'coercive behaviour' after young mum takes her own life
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A man accused of conducting a “campaign of abuse” before his former fiancée took her own life has been found guilty of assault and controlling and coercive behaviour - but cleared of manslaughter. Ryan Wellings went on trial accused of the manslaughter of 23-year-old Kiena Dawes after she left a suicide note naming him as her killer. The mother of a nine-month-old baby girl then lay on railway tracks where she was struck and killed by a train.
Today Wellings was told by a jury at Preston Crown Court he was not guilty of killing her after denying manslaughter, but was found guilty of assault and guilty of controlling and coercive behaviour towards Kiena. Today, as the verdicts were read, Wellings, wearing a dark suit and tie, smiled and gave the thumbs up to his family. He also blew them a kiss.
The trial was told he carried out a prolonged campaign of abuse before she was found dead on a railway track near Garstang, in Lancashire, in July 2022. The hairdresser, from Fleetwood, had vanished earlier that day after leaving her daughter with a friend along with a suicide note on her mobile phone which said she’d been “murdered” by Wellings. She suffered multiple injuries when she was struck by a Glasgow-bound train travelling at 110 mph.
Wellings, 30, from Bispham, Lancashire, who had Kiena’s name tattooed on his neck within a week of meeting her, claimed their relationship was a “loving” one, she had injured herself, and he didn’t accept his conduct caused her death, while her underlying mental health issues may have caused her to take her own life. Upsetting footage of her sobbing while pregnant after being attacked by Wellings has also been released today.
