More prison time for abuser whose partner took life

A man whose girlfriend killed herself after years of domestic abuse has had seven months added to his prison sentence for contempt of court.

Ryan Wellings was acquitted of manslaughter but convicted of assaulting Kiena Dawes, 23, before her death and engaging in coercive and controlling behaviour over a period of two years.

Dawes, a hairdresser from Fleetwood in Lancashire, died on a railway line on 22 July 2022.

She had left her baby daughter with a friend and recorded a note on her phone calling 31-year-old Wellings a "monster" who had "killed me".

Wellings, who was jailed for six and a half years in January 2025, returned to Preston Crown Court on Friday where he admitted defying the judge's instructions not to discuss his trial while he was giving evidence.

Wellings had ignored the directions - which are standard in criminal trials - as he went on to discuss the case in eight telephone calls from prison with his then partner, Lisa Croft, 29, and his mother Lisa Green, 53, between 17 December 2024 and 2 January 2025.

Adam Birkby, prosecuting, said mother-of-two Croft was present in court for the judicial warnings and that Green was a potential defence witness who knew she could not discuss the trial while it was ongoing.

He told Preston Crown Court: "The Crown's case is that during the telephone calls the defendants engaged in witness coaching, and that their joint intention was to influence and thereby improve both the content of the evidence given by Ryan Wellings and the manner in which he gave it.

"This was in flagrant breach of the clear order of the court."

In one phone call, Croft told Wellings: "Some advice to listen, so take it in. Say how sorry you was and how you regret some of your action.

"You can show emotion. If you do feel like you're gonna cry then let it out."

Days later, Wellings wept when giving evidence about hearing of the death of Kiena Dawes, said the prosecutor.

In another exchange, Croft told Wellings that when he was questioned about "kick offs" between him and Dawes to suggest that some of them were related to her mental health problems.

Croft also advised: "Don't forget to keep mentioning self-defence. Get it in there."

Birkby said: "Witness coaching is, by its very nature, an egregious contravention of a fundamental principle of criminal proceedings."

Croft and Green also pleaded guilty to contempt of court.

Judge Robert Altham, who presided over Wellings's trial, told the defendants: "This conduct on the part of all three of you represents a serious interference with the fairness and integrity of the trial process in an important and serious case concerning the loss of life."

But he said it could not be concluded that the "ultimate outcome" of the trial was affected.

Wellings, who was due to be released as early as next June, received a seven-month jail sentence to run consecutively to his ongoing term of imprisonment.

Croft and Green were sentenced to six months in jail, suspended for 20 months.

Green and Wellings's father, Michael Wellings, 51, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to kidnapping their granddaughter weeks after the death of Dawes.

The youngster, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was "snatched from the street" by the pair, who drove off a short distance.

Green dialled 999 herself to say they had to "snatch her back" because they claimed the Dawes family had refused to return her and their son had parental responsibility.

Sentencing them both to nine months in prison, suspended for 20 months, Judge Altham said: "You didn't think of your granddaughter, you thought only of yourselves."

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