Law 'should recognise domestic abuse suicide link'

A new law could be created to recognise the fact that some victims of domestic abuse ultimately take their own lives, a police and crime commissioner (PCC) has said.

Lancashire PCC Clive Grunshaw took his case to Westminster following the death in 2022 of Kiena Dawes, a mother from Fleetwood.

Ryan Wellings was cleared of her manslaughter but convicted of assault, having subjected the 23-year-old hairdresser to prolonged coercive and controlling behaviour.

Grunshaw said the prosecutor in that case, Paul Greaney KC, had also attended a meeting with Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones to discuss reforms including potentially creating a new offence with sentences akin to those for manslaughter.

Preston Crown Court heard Kiena had been abused and assaulted by Wellings, 30, throughout their relationship.

She died on a railway line close to Barnacre, near Garstang.

Before her death she had written a note saying "I was murdered".

The Local Democracy Reporting Service said Grunshaw told Monday's meeting of the Lancashire Police and Crime Panel that he had spoken with Davies-Jones in December at a meeting also attended by Frank Mullane, chief executive of Advocacy after Fatal Domestic Abuse (AAFDA).

Grunshaw said there was discussion about "an amendment to the Serious Crime Act 2015 to allow the imposition of Extended Determinate Sentence (EDS) where appropriate, and whether there is scope to take this further and craft a new law to assist juries to recognise the causative relationship between domestic abuse and suicide and attracting a similar sentence to the offence of manslaughter".

He said leaders in Lancashire would also be invited to take part in the Law Commission's review of the homicide law, and "whether the current offence structure remains appropriate".

The BBC has contacted the Ministry of Justice for comment.

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During Wellings' trial, jurors heard he had slammed a door into Kiena's head at their flat in Fleetwood, knocking her unconscious and leaving her covered in blood.

The attack happened in the presence of their screaming baby daughter.

Wellings was jailed for six years assaulting Kiena, and was given an additional six months in prison for an unrelated assault on his friend, a man called Scott Fletcher.

Kiena's mother, Angela Dawes, read a statement in court ahead of Wellings' sentencing in which she described how his baby daughter had been "exposed to and experienced extreme domestic abuse and violence against her mummy".

Prosecutor Greaney told the judge that although the jury did not convict Wellings of manslaughter, he had "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."

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