A young mum driven to suicide by her abusive partner confided in her old teacher that their relationship had turned from ‘fairy tale to nightmare’, a court has heard.
Kiena Dawes, 23, kept in touch with Nicola Atherton on Facebook and discussed her relationship with Ryan Wellings, 30, who she later accused of ‘murder’ when she took her own life in July 2022.
Mrs Atherton, who taught Kiena at Lytham St Annes High School, Lancashire, told jurors: ‘She just said the first six months were a fairy tale but then it turned into a nightmare.
‘Those were her exact words. Horrendous domestic violence. Horrendous physical abuse.’
Swapping messages on Facebook, Kiena said her posts on the site did not reflect the ‘true side’ of her life with Wellings and sent her old teacher photos she claimed showed injuries from his beatings.
Mrs Atherton told her she was ‘best rid’ of Wellings and suggested she break contact, adding: ‘This is toxic.’
Kiena replied: ‘Been bullied till there’s nothing left of me.’
Mrs Atherton told the court: ‘She said she was struggling to cope. She said she felt tortured by what Ryan and his friends were putting her through.’
Wellings denies manslaughter, assault and controlling and coercive behaviour between January 2020 and July 22, 2022.
The court heard Kiena met him in January 2020 and was ‘swept off her feet’.
He had her name and face tattooed on his body just a week later and proposed marriage within three months.
But it is alleged that Wellings began physically and emotionally abusing Miss Dawes soon after.
Debbie Green, who would do Miss Dawes’ nails, told the court she went ‘downhill’ after meeting Wellings.
Ms Green said: ‘She went from being a happy-go-lucky girl to frightened all the time.
‘It was always doom and gloom because of what was happening with Ryan.
‘That he was battering her. Every appointment there would be something that would have happened.’
Ms Green said Kiena told her of an occasion when Wellings allegedly held a working drill to her mouth, that he would tell her to go and kill herself.
At another appointment, she said she had turned up with a black eye and an arm ‘black’ from bruising.
During their final appointment, Kiena was ‘hysterical, crying’ Ms Green said, after an alleged beating and vowed to finally leave him for good.
‘I think she had had enough of being battered,’ Ms Green told the jury.
Two days later Miss Dawes killed herself.
Lawyers for Wellings, of Bispham, Lancashire, told jurors Kiena was a ‘troubled’ woman, whose mental health issues pre-dated meeting him and her decision to kill herself was the result of ‘multiple factors’.
He told police any injuries were accidental from him trying to restrain her.
The trial continues.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.
For more stories like this, check our news page.
