Young mom left harrowing suicide word accusing her ‘abusive’ boyfriend of ‘killing her’ after ‘ruining each little bit of energy she had left’ earlier than leaping in entrance of prepare – as he denies manslaughter

A young mother who tragically threw herself in front of a train after suffering a campaign of domestic abuse left a note saying her partner had ‘killed me’, a jury heard today.

‘Bright and popular’ Kiena Dawes, 23, left her nine-month-old daughter with a friend then drove to a nearby railway line, lying across the tracks as an express train approached at 110mph.

Following her death, a suicide note was found on her phone in which she wrote: ‘Ryan Wellings killed me.’

Her final words were today read to a jury as 30-year-old Wellings stood trial for the manslaughter of Ms Dawes, as well as controlling and coercive behaviour over a two-and-a-half year period and assaulting causing actual bodily harm.

Wellings treated Ms Dawes in ‘a thoroughly abusive way’ and subjected her to repeated physical assaults during the pair’s relationship, Paul Greaney, KC, told jurors.

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.

In the suicide note, Ms Dawes wrote: ‘Ryan Wellings killed me. Kayleigh Anderson [Wellings’ ex partner] helped torture me.

‘He ruined every bit of strength I had left. I didn’t deserve it. I didn’t ask for it.

‘I hope my life saves another by police services acting faster.’

Writing that she ‘went through pain no one could imagine’, Ms Dawes added: ‘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.’

Ms Dawes wrote that ‘worst of all’ was having to leave behind the daughter she shared with Wellings.

‘Please can the world protect her,’ she added.

‘Make sure she is safe. She is loved.

‘She is heard and she doesn’t ever experience any of the pain I have.

‘I’m so sorry I had to go. I tried my hardest to stay with you, to keep you safe from these monsters.

‘But I couldn’t, I couldn’t protect you because they are allowed to live, speak, lie.

‘Most importantly LIE. They lied. Repeatedly about me.

‘The world turned their back on me. I would never have left otherwise.

‘I was strong. I had dreams. I had a future at one point. That was taken away from me. I will always love my family.

‘I love them unconditionally. I always have, I always will. Please protect them.

‘I won’t rest in peace till I know my girl is safe.’

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

‘She deserves more.’

Saying her daughter’s ‘beautiful smile when you wake up and see my face’ was ‘enough to save me’, she concluded: ‘But these people took me away, I am so sorry I hope your life turns out happy, don’t forget how much I love you.

‘I am going to miss you so much….

‘Good night and I am sorry.’

Ms Dawes, from Fleetwood, Lancashire, had been due to visit a friend on the morning of July 22, 2022, Mr Greaney said.

But when she arrived, her friend was in the shower, and instead Ms Dawes left her baby daughter still strapped in her car seat along with a mobile phone containing the note.

She then drove to the railway line near the village of Barnacre and lay across the tracks shortly after a service bound for Glasgow left nearby Preston at 12.46pm.

Tragically the train driver was unable to stop in time and Ms Dawes was fatally injured.

‘What had caused a bright and popular young mother to take such clear and deliberate steps to end her own life, even leaving behind her infant daughter with a friend to do so?’ Mr Greaney asked jurors.

After reading them the suicide note – which was also displayed on screens in court – the prosecutor said its ‘predominant thrust’ was that Wellings was ‘responsible for her death’.

He added: ‘Kiena’s own words, ‘Ryan Wellings killed me’ represent the prosecution’s case, namely that the death of Kiena Dawes was caused by the unlawful acts of Ryan Wellings and that he is therefore guilty of her manslaughter.’

But Mr Greaney said the prosecution case was ‘much broader’ than this and included details of the ‘prolonged’ abuse Wellings allegedly subjected her to.

He said Ms Dawes suffered from emotionally unstable personality disorder which can result in increased impulsivity, poor self-esteem and difficulty in relationships with others.

‘Ryan Wellings exploited the vulnerability that this mental health condition generated and he made it worse,’ Mr Greaney said.

‘While her personality disorder no doubt played a part in Kiena’s decision to take her own life, so too did Ryan Wellings’ abuse of Kiena and, certainly, a final assault that he carried out on July 11, 2022, just 11 days before her suicide, was a significant factor, the prosecution says in her decision to kill herself.’

The prosecutor said Wellings’ defence was understood to be that her ‘descriptions of his behaviour in messages and in discussions with friends and family were inaccurate’.

‘Her complaints were, he says, either untrue or exaggerated,’ he added.

Wellings instead maintains their relationship ‘was generally a loving one in which they treated each other with kindness’.

‘There were sometimes arguments, in which he accepts that his language was unacceptable – but where Kiena sustained injury, he maintains that was not the consequence of any assaults by him but instead the result of his efforts to restrain her or the consequence of accident or, he says, Kiena inflicted the injuries on herself,’ Mr Greaney said.

‘Ryan Wellings does not accept that his conduct caused Kiena’s death, maintaining that her underlying mental health condition was, or may have been the explanation for why Kiena took the decision to end her own life.

‘This trial will give you, members of the jury, the opportunity to assess whether that defence is or might be right.

‘We predict that the evidence will reveal that the defence of Ryan Wellings is false.’

The couple met in January 2020, with the relationship quickly becoming ‘intense’, Mr Greaney said.

Within weeks, Wellings had the hairdresser’s name tattooed on his neck and her face on his leg.

However there were early signs of ‘trouble’, he added, with Ms Dawes sending him a message reading: ‘Stop hurting me now.’

When the first national Covid lockdown was announced in March 2020, the pair began living together at the Blackpool home of Wellings’ ex, with whom he had two daughters.

However this ‘unusual set-up’ didn’t last long, Mr Greaney said, and later that month Ms Dawes went to stay with a friend in Dorset.

But in April, Wellings travelled to the south coast where he proposed to Ms Dawes on a beach, he told jurors.

She accepted, and in May the pair moved into a house in Dorset, with Wellings sometimes buying ‘extravagant’ gifts and champagne, and at others behaving in a ‘belittling’ way towards her.

After one argument, the friend found the house ‘smashed up’ and Ms Dawes told her Wellings had tried to strangle her with a phone charger, jurors heard.

On another occasion on May 29, 2020, Ms Dawes later alleged in a statement to police that Wellings had thrown a stool at her, called her a ‘slag’ and told her to kill herself.

In a message sent to her that day which was later recovered by police, Wellings wrote: ‘So disgusted in my life for scaring you like that. Never felt so s*** about myself.’

This ‘supported’ her account, Mr Greaney told jurors.

Dressed in a dark suit and tie, Wellings sat listening in the glass-panelled dock as Ms Dawes’ suicide note was read to jurors at Preston Crown Court.

Members of Ms Dawes’ family sitting in the public gallery sat with their eyes shut as her final words were read out.

There was also supporting evidence for an alleged violent incident after pubs reopened as Covid rules were relaxed in July 2020, the court heard.

That day, July 4, Ms Dawes sent a message to Wellings’ ex to say he had been ‘aggressive’.

Three days later, Wellings sent Ms Dawes a message saying he felt ‘s***’ for ‘upsetting’ her.

Later that month she returned to the Blackpool area, learning that her father – with whom she had been very close – had died suddenly.

Mr Greaney said that while the impact of his loss – two years and two days before her suicide – may have contributed to her taking her own life, the abuse Wellings subjected her to ‘undoubtedly’ contributed.

He said a ‘pattern’ had developed of Wellings being ‘aggressive and violent’ before ‘showering’ Ms Dawes with affection.

This amounted to coercive and controlling behaviour and was therefore a crime, Mr Greaney said.

‘In the end, it was to grind Kiena down.’

Messages were read to the jury including one in which Ms Dawes wrote: ‘You’ve f****** terrorised me.’

In another she wrote: ‘You’re a head f*** and you know it will ruin me.’

She also wrote: ‘You’re a bully.’

In February 2021, Ms Dawes discovered she was pregnant with Wellings’ child, later saying both were ‘over the moon’.

From that point she stopped taking her medication and her mental health took a ‘downturn’, she later said in a police statement.

‘The emotional abuse was on a daily basis,’ she said.

‘He would talk to other women on social media and was cheating.’

Wellings would call her ‘a psychopath and a freak’ and tell her the baby would be taken off her when it was born, she said.

She ended up in hospital for three weeks feeling ‘suicidal’, but while Wellings was ‘supportive’ the abuse continued after she was discharged.

‘He would say he doesn’t want to be with me because I’m too fat,’ her statement continued.

‘He would say that I am stuck with him and no one else would be with me.’

That April she threw him out of the flat they were renting in Fleetwood because he had been cheating on her – only for ‘associates’ of Wellings to threaten to set her car on fire, jurors heard.

Wellings himself updated his Facebook profile to show him sitting in a car, smiling and holding a lighter, Mr Greaney said.

Earlier Judge Robert Altham, the Honorary Recorder of Preston, warned jurors not to let ‘sympathy and emotion’ affect their deliberations.

‘It’s a terribly sad case,’ he said.

‘Whatever your findings, the fact remains Ms Dawes lost her life.’

He said it was ‘natural’ for jurors to experience ‘feelings of sadness, feelings of sympathy’.

But they would need to ‘recognise sympathy and emotion when it crops up and put it to one side’ and deal with the evidence in a ‘cold and analytical’ manner.

The trial continues.