An ‘abusive’ boyfriend accused of driving his partner to kill herself today claimed her friends had ‘twisted’ the truth about their relationship because they ‘blamed’ him for her death.
Kiena Dawes was ‘ground down’ by two-and-a-half years of domestic violence to which she was subjected by partner Ryan Wellings, a jury has been told.
Having felt ‘unsupported’ by police after being left with a bloodied face in a later alleged assault by the 30-year-old in July 2022, she left their nine-month-old daughter with a friend before lying in the path of a train.
A note was found on the 23-year-old’s phone after her death in which she wrote how she had been ‘murdered slowly’, adding: ‘Ryan Wellings killed me.’
Wellings denies the manslaughter of the ‘bright and popular’ hairdresser as well as assault causing actual bodily harm and controlling and coercive behaviour in an intimate relationship.
Cross-examined today at Preston Crown Court, Wellings admitted he sometimes ‘lost control’ under the influence of cocaine.
But he denied being ‘a brute’ to Ms Dawes and said that physical injuries she sustained during their arguments had all been inflicted accidentally.
Jurors at Preston Crown Court have heard that Wellings allegedly ‘threw’ Ms Dawes across the living room and hurled a footstool at her in one row, causing her to cut her foot on broken glass.
Kiena Dawes (pictured) was ‘ground down’ by two-and-a-half years of domestic violence to which she was subjected by her then-partner

Ryan Wellings (pictured) admitted he sometimes ‘lost control’ under the influence of cocaine
The trial has heard from Lucy Hann that her friend Ms Dawes reported afterwards that Wellings had also tried to strangle her with a phone charger in March 2020 during the early stages of their relationship, when they were living in Bournemouth.
Today the forklift truck driver said he had ‘volleyed’ the stool but insisted it hadn’t hit Ms Dawes and denied trying to strangle her.
Asked by prosecutor Paul Greaney KC about the accounts of prosecution witnesses, he said: ‘These are friends of Kiena’s.
‘Kiena’s took her life and they blame me.
‘When these people are doing these statements, things are being added and they’re twisted.’
Asked earlier by Mr Greaney if he sometimes ‘lost control’ under the influence of cocaine, Wellings replied: ‘Yes.’
‘When I’m pushed, everyone has a breaking point,’ he said.
He admitted that during ‘binges’ he would snort £400 worth of the drug in 24 hours.
But Wellings insisted arguments happened when he was on a ‘comedown’ from cocaine and became irritable.
‘You were just a brute to her,’ Mr Greaney said.

Ryan Wellings who is on trial for manslaughter told a jury he had given his partner Kiena Davies a black eye during an argument

A note was found on the 23-year-old’s phone after her death in which she wrote how she had been ‘murdered slowly’, adding: ‘Ryan Wellings killed me.’
‘I wasn’t,’ Wellings answered.
Mr Greaney read out a note Ms Dawes wrote on her phone in January 2022 in which she said: ‘I get hit around the head every week now.’
In a message to Wellings that month she wrote: ‘I’m annoying but your (sic) violent. You slap me one too many times.’
‘That’s exactly what you had been doing to Kiena, isn’t it?’ Mr Greaney asked.
‘No,’ Wellings replied.
‘I never slapped Kiena around the head.’
Wellings also denied ever threatening to attack Ms Dawes’ teeth using a drill or throw acid in her face.
‘She made up a lot of things,’ he said.
Wellings told jurors an incident where Ms Dawes sustained a black eye during a row at their flat in Fleetwood, Lancashire in July 2021 was an accident after she caught his face with her acrylic fingernails.
‘It was a reaction, to get off me,’ he said.
Denying ever hitting Ms Dawes in anger, Wellings said: ‘She kept attacking me.’
Mr Greaney said: ‘Please Mr Wellings, be frank – you were regularly using physical violence against Kiena out of anger, weren’t you?’
‘No,’ Wellings replied.
‘We were both arguing, we were both pushing each other.’
Wellings agreed that he was taking steroids at the time and going to the gym to build muscle mass.
Asked what would have happened in these ‘pushing matches’ given that he was ‘more powerful’ than her, Wellings answered: ‘Kiena would have got hurt.’
Asked if he ‘belittled and insulted’ her during their relationship, Wellings said: ‘We both said toxic things about each other’s appearance and family.’
Ms Dawes suffered from emotionally unstable personality disorder, jurors have been told.

Ms Dawes, pictured, wrote that she hoped her daughter is ‘kept away from the monster who is called her dad’

Wellings said when his relationship with Ms Dawes was good it was ‘perfect’, but it was bad at times a result of their ‘party lifestyle’

The ‘bright and popular’ hairdresser was ‘ground down’ by two-and-a-half years of domestic violence , a jury has been told
The condition resulted in increased impulsivity, poor self-esteem and difficulty in relationships.
But according to the prosecution, Wellings ‘exploited’ her vulnerability and ‘made it worse’.
The court has heard a ‘pattern’ developed of Wellings being ‘aggressive and violent’ before ‘showering’ Ms Dawes with affection.
Jurors have been shown pictures of Ms Dawes with a bloodied head which she sustained in a final alleged assault 11 days before her suicide.
She later posted the photographs on Facebook.
Wellings denies assault causing actual bodily harm over the incident, on July 11, 2022.
Today he told jurors he may have inflicted the injury by accident when kicking the door closed as she tried to throw him out of the flat.
‘I didn’t know she was behind the door,’ he said.
‘I just kicked it and called her a slag.’
Wellings said that Ms Dawes included a picture of a tool covered in blood in her Facebook post detailing her injuries.
Asked by Judge Robert Altham whether he suspected Ms Dawes may have used it to cause the injuries herself, he replied: ‘Yes.’
‘The third possibility is that you slammed that door deliberately into her head,’ Mr Greaney said.
‘I did not,’ he answered.
‘You bashed that door into her head,’ Mr Greaney said.
‘I pushed the door,’ Wellings replied.
‘Knowing full-well how vulnerable she was,’ Mr Greaney continued.
‘I kicked the door out of anger because I’d just been attacked,’ Wellings said.
Wellings treated Ms Dawes in ‘a thoroughly abusive way’ and subjected her to repeated physical assaults, Mr Greaney has told the trial at Preston Crown Court.

The court heard a ‘pattern’ developed of Wellings being ‘aggressive and violent’ before ‘showering’ Ms Dawes with affection

Having felt ‘unsupported’ by police, she left their nine-month-old daughter with a friend before taking her own life
A final assault on July 11, 2022 – just 11 days before her suicide on the West Coast Main Line near Garstang, Lancashire – was a ‘significant factor’ in her decision to take her own life, he said.
Having felt ‘unsupported’ by police, she left their nine-month-old daughter with a friend before taking her own life.
In the suicide note found on her phone detailing how she ‘went through pain no one could imagine’, Ms Dawes added: ‘I was murdered. Slowly.’
She also wrote: ‘I hope my life saves another by police services acting faster.’
The defence claim that Ms Dawes’ descriptions of Wellings’s behaviour are either inaccurate, untrue or exaggerated and her death was not the consequence of any unlawful acts by him.
It’s alleged she was a ‘deeply troubled’ young woman with a long psychiatric history, which included previous attempts to take her own life.
The trial resumes in January.