An abusive bully who violently terrorised his fiancée before she took her own life has become engaged while behind bars, it has been claimed.
Ryan Wellings, 30, smiled and blew kisses to 28-year-old Emma Croft from the dock when he was convicted of extensively battering and threatening Kiena Dawes over a two-year period.
Kiena, 23, left her nine-month-old baby with a friend and went to end her life at a railway line in Lancashire in July 2022.
She had typed a note on her phone saying: ‘I was murdered. Ryan Wellings killed me. He ruined every bit of strength I had left. I didn’t deserve it.’
Wellings was cleared of Kiena’s manslaughter but was found guilty of assault and controlling and coercive behaviour.
Friends of Ms Croft say Wellings made his proposal in a letter he left with his mum before the conviction, according to MailOnline.
She has reportedly told them she accepted the proposal and will ‘stick by’ him until his release.
‘She keeps telling everyone they don’t really know the real Ryan, but she’s in complete denial,’ one friend told the outlet, while another said she was ‘completely in thrall’.
Jurors were told how Wellings repeatedly beat Kiena while she was pregnant and threatened to drown her in a bath.
He also threatened to drill her teeth and ‘make her look like Katie Piper’ by dousing her with acid.
He also told Kiena to kill herself and on one occasion pushed her head underwater in a bath and said ‘Say goodbye to your baby’.
Wellings was the first person to stand trial accused of the unlawful killing of a partner who ended their own life after suffering domestic abuse.
Prosecutors said his abuse ‘set the scene for her death’.
‘Kiena was caused to feel – on many occasions – serious alarm and distress,’ he said.
‘This had a substantial effect on her and caused her significant psychological harm.’
The abuse continued even during periods when Kiena had broken up with Wellings.
She had called police at least five times to report abuse but, due to his threats, later downplayed it.
A final battering eleven days before her death ‘broke’ her, jurors were told, and she made another statement.
Wellings was arrested but bailed, then ignored a condition to stay away.
Kiena’s suicide note also called for police to act faster in future.Three police officers face disciplinary proceedings.
