Man accused of driving partner to suicide tells jury: I am not a monster
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A man accused of driving his vulnerable partner to suicide through domestic abuse and violence drank prosecco and took cocaine after being charged with her manslaughter, he told a jury. Ryan Wellings, 30, said he left the police station after being accused of being responsible for the death of Kiena Dawes, 23, and then recorded and uploaded a video to Facebook, blaming Miss Dawes’ mother for her daughter’s death, Preston Crown Court heard.
Wellings is on trial for the manslaughter of Miss Dawes, who left a suicide note saying, “I was murdered … Ryan Wellings killed me.”. She left their eight-month-old daughter with a friend before taking her own life on a railway line on July 22 2022.
Wellings, a landscape gardener, of Bispham, Lancashire, also denies assault and coercive and controlling behaviour between January 2020 and July 2022. He was asked about the short video he made within an hour of leaving the police station, on June 3 last year, after being charged with Miss Dawes’ manslaughter.
The clip, with loud backing music, showed him being driven in a car, wearing sunglasses and holding a bottle, saying: “I’m driving around with a bottle of prosecco. “I have been told off an hour ago on a manslaughter charge. “It’s all f****** shit.
“Angela Dawes (Kiena’s mother), you need to take the blame for abandoning your daughter and going to Greece. “You are a f****** slag.”. Paul Greaney KC, prosecuting, asked Wellings in the witness box: “You uploaded it on purpose to intimidate the Dawes family and show them who is boss.
