Kiena Dawes: Ryan Wellings' twisted bid to threaten tragic mum's family in sick video
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A coercive and controlling man uploaded a sick video in order to "intimidate" his partner's family after she took her own life, a court has heard. 30-year-old Ryan Wellings uploaded the twisted video of himself rapping in the passenger seat of a car while swigging prosecco within an hour of leaving the police station having just been charged with the manslaughter of Kiena Dawes. In the video, Wellings, wearing sunglasses, rants: "I've been told off an hour ago on a manslaughter charge. But it's all f***ing s**t.".
Wellings was arrested after 23-year-old hairdresser Kiena took her life having suffered two years of horrendous domestic abuse and violence after leaving their eight-month-old daughter with a friend before driving to a nearby railway line in July 2022. In her suicide note, Kiena stated she was "murdered" and that Wellings had "killed" her. After a six-week trial, Wellings was found not guilty of manslaughter, but was convicted of assault and found guilty of controlling and coercive behaviour towards Kiena yesterday.
He uploaded the sick video to his Facebook profile, in which he says Kiena's mum "better take the blame for abandoning [her] daughter and going off to Greece", calling her a "f***ing slag". During his trial at Preston Crown Cour, the landscape gardener from Bispham, Lancashire, said he had recorded and uploaded the video to Facebook by accident and later deleted it.
But Paul Greaney, KC, prosecuting, told him: "You uploaded it on purpose to intimidate the Dawes family and show them who is boss." Wellings, however, claimed: "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 kids' mum, the woman I loved.".
