A twisted thug who subjected his former fiancée to years of horrific abuse before she took her own life has been jailed for six and a half years in prison.
Ryan Wellings, 30, was found guilty of assault and controlling and coercive behaviour after a six-week trial at Preston Crown Court today, Thursday, January 16, after the jury heard heartbreaking details of the abuse Kiena Dawes, 23, endured over a two-year period, reports the Mirror.
However, Wellings was found not guilty of Kiena’s manslaughter after she took her own life, having left her eight-month-old baby girl and a suicide note penned on her phone at a friend’s home.
The court was told how Wellings subjected Kiena to a prolonged campaign of abuse before she was found dead on a railway track near Garstang, Lancashire, in July 2022.
In the harrowing final note left by hairdresser Kiena she said that she had been “murdered” by Wellings.
Wellings, a landscape gardender from Bispham, Lancashire, claimed his relationship with Kiena was in fact “loving” and he didn’t accept his conduct caused her death, blaming her underlying mental health issues.
The court heard that Wellings’ abuse was a “significant factor” in Kiena’s decision to end her life, with the last attack just 11 days before her tragic death.
In the heartbreaking suicide note, Kiena wrote: “The end. I fought hard, I fought long. went through pain no one could imagine. No one will know what I went through. I was murdered. Slowly. They tortured me, till there was nothing left. I lost my fight but I didn’t give up my battle. I fought till the end. Ryan Wellings killed me.”
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