Man accused of driving partner to suicide assaulted his ex three years earlier
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A man accused of driving his partner to suicide had assaulted a previous girlfriend, a court has heard. Ryan Wellings is accused of the manslaughter of 23-year-old Kiena Dawes, who left a suicide note saying ‘I was murdered…Ryan Wellings killed me’.
![[Kiena Dawes was found on a railway line near Garstang in July 2022]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_230999831-fd38.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=483)
Kiena left their eight-month-old daughter with a friend before taking her own life on a railway line on July 22, 2022. Giving evidence at his trial earlier today, 30-year-old Wellings admitted he had assaulted a former girlfriend when she picked him up from his uncle’s house in 2019.
![[Tributes have poured in for a 'beautiful' young mum who was killed by a train in Garstang. Heartbroken family and friends have named Kiena Dawes as the woman who was hit by a train on the Preston to Lancaster line on Friday afternoon. The 23-year-old was tragically pronounced dead at the scene by the emergency services.]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/SEI_116481979-1ad0.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
He said he had taken a ‘lot of drugs’ and drank ‘a lot of alcohol’ and lost his temper with her. Wellings admitted an offence of battery following the incident, during which he also damaged her car and tried to hit his father. When he was arrested, he told the officer: ‘It’s all kicked off. I’ve been at a party and taken loads of coke. I have a problem.’.
![[Kiena Dawes, 23, went missing from her home in Fleetwood, Lancashire, on July 22, 2022. Relatives raised the alarm after the mum-of-one left her nine-month-old daughter with a close friend and failed to return. Ryan Wellings, 30, believed to be her ex-partner, has been charged with manslaughter, controlling and coercive behaviour and assault occasioning actual bodily harm. Ian Leonard Freelance Journalist 07855 801261 ianleonard01@yahoo.co.uk]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/SEI_220369852-24c7.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Wellings also admitted having punched a friend after a night out in August 2023. John Jones KC, defending, asked if he had lost his temper on that occasion and Wellings said: ‘I did because he was belittling me in front of my friends.’. He pleaded guilty to assault occasioning actual bodily harm earlier this year.
Honorary Recorder of Preston Judge Robert Altham told the jury they would have to decide if those previous convictions proved Wellings had the propensity to commit acts of violence. Wellings is also accused of assault and coercive and controlling behaviour between January 2020 and July 2022, which he denies.
