A young Lancashire mother who took her own life after being assaulted and domestically abused kept a catalogue of evidence.<br /><br />Kiena Dawes, 23, had written a suicide note saying, “Ryan Wellings killed me”, before leaving their nine-month-old daughter with a friend and taking her own life on a railway line on July 22, 2022.<br /><br />Wellings, 30, had denied manslaughter but became the first defendant to be tried before a jury accused of the unlawful killing of his partner after her suicide following domestic violence.<br /><br />Only one other defendant has been convicted in such circumstances before, Nicholas Allen, who admitted before his trial in 2017 the manslaughter of his partner, Justene Reece.<br /><br />Ms Dawes’ suicide note, written on her phone, meant she had named and blamed her killer, “from beyond the grave”, Wellings’ trial heard.<br /><br />But he was cleared of her manslaughter and convicted of assault and coercive and controlling behaviour towards Ms Dawes after a six-week trial at Preston Crown Court.
