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The ex-boyfriend of a vulnerable young mother who was accused of abusing for years has been cleared of causing her death, after she left a suicide note claiming “I was murdered”.

A Preston Crown Court trial heard hairdresser Kiena Dawes, 23, had endured controlling and coercive behaviour for two years from former partner Ryan Wellings, 30, which had left her hospitalised for 11 days on one occasion.

On 22 July 2022, Ms Dawes, from Fleetwood, left the couple’s nine-month-old daughter at a friend’s house and took her own life.

Next to her daughter, she left a note on her mobile phone which read: “The end. I fought hard, I fought long. I went through pain no one could imagine.

“I was murdered. Ryan Wellings killed me. He ruined every bit of strength I had left. I didn’t deserve it.

“I hope my life saves another by police services acting faster. Don’t let bullies live free.”

Kiena Dawes took her life in July 2022 (Lancashire Police)

Addressing her daughter, she then wrote: “I’m sorry I let you go … I’m so sorry I had to go.

“The world turned their back on me. I was strong. I had dreams. I had a future at one point. That was taken away from me.”

She added in the note she hoped her daughter was “kept away from the monster who is called her dad”.

Mr Wellings denied allegations of manslaughter, assault and controlling and coercive behaviour, and was found not guilty by a jury at Preston Crown Court.

Within an hour of leaving the police station last year, after being charged with her manslaughter, he uploaded a video to Facebook, blaming Miss Dawes’ mother for her daughter’s death.

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, you need to take the blame for abandoning your daughter and going to Greece. You are a f****** slag.”

When questioned why he had uploaded the video, he told jurors he was sleep-deprived and had downed bottles of prosecco and taken drugs at the time.

He maintained he never intentionally hit Miss Dawes and any injuries were a result of him “restraining” her as she attacked him. He admitted previously assaulting another former girlfriend, the mother of his twin daughters.

Jurors heard that Miss Dawes, who had struggled with poor mental health, first met Wellings in January 2020 and was “swept off her feet”, her mother told the court.

The case was heard at Preston Crown Court (PA Archive)

He had her name and face tattooed on his body within a week and proposed marriage within three months.

But the prosecution alleged that Wellings began physically and emotionally abusing Miss Dawes soon after, and she told a friend their relationship was a “fairytale (that had) turned into a nightmare”.

The court heard that after the couple moved to Dorset following the first Covid lockdown, a friend of Ms Dawes visited the flat in May 2020 to find it smashed up and she told her friend that Wellings had tried to strangle her with an iPhone charger cable.

The jury heard that on another occasion, Wellings accused Ms Dawes of sleeping with a friend of theirs, screamed at her she was a “slag”, threw a stool at her and told her to kill herself.

It was also alleged in court that, near the end of 2021 Miss Dawes told friends how Wellings had got a drill and “put it in my face and told me he would drill my teeth out of my mouth”.

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