Warning: This article contains discussion of domestic violence and suicide which some readers may find distressing.
A man who was blamed for his girlfriend’s death in her suicide note has been cleared of manslaughter but found guilty of assault.
Ryan Wellings, 30, had faced charges of driving his girlfriend Kiena Dawes to her death after years of alleged domestic violence.
He is the first person to be tried before a jury accused of the unlawful killing of his partner after her suicide following domestic violence.
Ryan Wellings has been cleared of manslaughter but found guilty of assault and controlling and coercive behaviour (Lancashire Police)
Dawes, 23, had died by suicide on 22 July 2022, leaving a note which included phrases such as ‘I was murdered’ and that Wellings had ‘killed’ her. She left her and Wellings’ nine-month-old daughter with a friend before taking her own life.
It is understood that Dawes made a statement to Lancashire Police after a final beating had left her needing hospital treatment. Wellings would later break his bail conditions but was not locked up – leaving the mother-of-one to feel let down by authorities.
Three Lancashire Police officers face disciplinary hearings.
The court heard how ‘swept off her feet’ by Wellings, who has a previous conviction for battering his ex-partner, in the early days of their relationship.
However, the relationship is said to have turned in to a ‘nightmare’, with text messages between the pair and from Ms Dawes to her friends being submitted as evidence.
The prosecution alleged that Wellings was an ‘entitled, aggressive bully’ who had physically assaulted Dawes as well as threatening her with further violence, such as threatening to use a drill to take out her teeth and throwing acid in her face to ‘make her look like Katie Piper‘.
Kiena Dawes died by suicide on 22 July 2022 (Lancashire Police/PA Wire)
Meanwhile, the defence stated that Dawes’ medical records had revealed she had a history of mental health issues, including a diagnosis of unstable personality disorder, and was a ‘very troubled young lady’ who ended her life due to ‘multiple factors’.
The 30-year-old admitted that he’d been ‘heavy handed’ with Dawes, but told the courts that her accusations of violence were a result of his attempts to restrain her or accidental.
“I’m not a monster,” he told the court.
Wellings made no reaction once jurors returned their verdicts, which cleared him of manslaughter but found him guilty of assault and controlling and coercive behaviour.
His sentencing is yet to take place.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
If you are experiencing domestic violence, please know that you are not alone. You can talk in confidence to the national domestic violence helpline Refuge on 0808 2000 247, available 24/7, or via live chat, available 10am-10pm, Monday to Friday.
Featured Image Credit: (Lancashire Police/Ryan Wellings)
Brenna Cooper
Unnerving moment woman who killed her parents and lived with their bodies for four year explains where they are
Virginia McCullough told police where she’d hidden the bodies for four years
Warning: the following video contains stressing scenes which some viewers may find distressing
The moment a woman who killed her parents and hid their bodies in her house for four years told police what had happened was captured on bodycam footage.
Virginia McCullough has been sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 36 years in prison for the murders of her father John, 71, and mother Lois, 70 at their home in Essex.
The 36-year-old woman poisoned her father with what prosecutors described as a ‘cocktail of prescription drugs’ and then ‘beat her mother with a hammer and stabbed her multiple times in the chest with a kitchen knife bought for the purpose’.
The murders took place in June 2019, and for the next four years, McCullough lived with the corpses of her parents hidden within the house.
Prosecutors said that she ‘built a makeshift tomb’ for her father covered in blankets, pictures and paintings, while she wrapped her mother’s body in a sleeping bag and put it in a wardrobe.
Virginia McCullough murdered her parents and hid their bodies in her house (Essex Police)
Bodycam footage from Essex Police showed the moment where McCullough told officers arresting her where she’d put the bodies of her parents.
“Upstairs there are about five wardrobes, it’s behind the bed at the back next to the sink, it’s the second one,” she said matter-of-factly about the location of her mother’s body.
She then directly told officers she ‘did know this would kind of come eventually’ and added that it was ‘proper that I serve my punishment’.
McCullough also agreed to sign a statement detailing how she’d killed her parents and stashed their bodies in her house.
An officer arresting her asked if she was happy to agree that she’d hidden her dad’s body ‘under a bed in the rear ground floor of the house’ and her mother’s upstairs in a cupboard next to the sink’.
Lois and John McCullough, who were murdered by their daughter (Essex Police)
The only correction she had was to say she’d put her mother’s body in a wardrobe.
She said: “Wardrobe, it’s a double wardrobe. It’s like four wardrobe doors but it’s the one nearest the sink.”
She then signed the account agreeing with all that she’d confessed to, telling the arresting officers ‘cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy’.
McCullough fell under suspicion after her parents GPs raised concerns over them missing multiple appointments, which led to police launching an investigation.
Officers entered the property on 15 September, 2023, where the woman said she would ‘cooperate’ with the investigation, telling them she ‘knew that this would have come eventually’.
She’d previously covered for their deaths by telling people they were either unwell or away on holidays.
Featured Image Credit: Essex Police
Topics: UK News, Crime, True Crime
Joe Harker
Abuser in ‘largest UK catfish case’ jailed for life after 12-year-old girl commits suicide
Alexander McCartney was given a life sentence, and investigators believe he might have targeted as many as 3,500 children
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
A predator who pretended to be a young girl so he could catfish his victims has been sentenced to life in prison with a minimum of 29 years behind bars.
Alexander McCartney, 26, from County Armagh, Northern Ireland, admitted to 185 charges involving at least 70 children ahead of his sentencing at Belfast Crown Court today (25 October).
For most of his sentencing, he sat in the court’s dock with his head bowed, according to The Independent.
He is believed to be one of the most prolific online child abusers in the world, and investigators believe that he may have targeted up to 3,500 children in total.
Alexander McCartney has been sentenced to life in prison (Police Service of Northern Ireland/PA)
His victims are from all over the globe, with cases including children in Australia, New Zealand and the US.
Operating from the bedroom of his childhood home, his method was to pose as a girl on social media platforms to befriend young girls and then he would begin to blackmail them.
One of his victims was Cimarron Thomas, a 12-year-old girl from the US who, in May 2018, took her own life instead of going along with McCartney’s demands to involve her younger sister in the abuse. Her father Ben also died by suicide 18 months later.
McCartney pleaded guilty to manslaughter over the 12-year-old girl’s death and also admitted to 59 counts of blackmail along with a slew of charges of distributing indecent images and inciting children to engage in sexual activity.
As reported by the BBC, Mr Justice O’Hara told Belfast Crown Court that there were ‘young girls, with younger siblings, all over the world, whose childhoods have been scarred by this defendant’.
The judge described the 26-year-old’s crimes as actions of ‘sadism and depravity’, saying he was ‘remorseless’ and ‘ignored multiple opportunities to stop’ and that he ‘ignored multiple pleas for mercy’.
Cimarron Thomas (Family handout/PSNI)
“In my judgment it is truly difficult to think of a sexual deviant who poses a greater risk than this defendant,” Mr Justice O’Hara said.
He also said he didn’t accept McCartney’s claim that he’d been catfished himself before he started offending, saying that even if McCartney had been it’d have had a ‘minimal’ mitigating effect.
The judge told the court that the five years McCartney had already spent in custody would count as part of his sentence, so the earliest he will be eligible for parole is 2039.
Catherine Kierans of the NI Public Prosecution Service said some of McCartney’s victims were not able to be identified despite efforts from investigators, and praised the ‘bravery’ of the families affected by his crimes.
She said: “McCartney’s crimes have harmed thousands of children and left them and their families dealing with the traumatic aftermath.
McCartney would contact his victims through social media, posing as a young girl (Facebook)
“Their courage stands in stark contrast to his cowardice in targeting vulnerable young girls.
“I want to recognise their bravery, which has been an inspiration to everyone who worked on this case.
“The police and prosecution teams, including the senior independent barristers who assisted with this case, were dedicated to working together to end the harm McCartney was causing.”
Detective Chief Superintendent Eamonn Corrigan from the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s Crime Operations Department called McCartney ‘nothing but a disgusting child predator’ who was ‘posing as young girls online to groom, manipulate and sexually abuse his victims’.
“As far as I am concerned there is only one place for McCartney and that is behind bars.” he said.
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
Featured Image Credit: PSNI/Facebook
Topics: UK News, Crime, World News, Technology
Joe Harker
Man with Alzheimer’s explains ‘hardest part’ of applying for assisted death in Switzerland
Alex Pandolfo has opened up about the assisted dying process in a new LADbible documentary
A man has revealed the ‘most difficult’ part of applying for an assisted death in Switzerland.
In 2015, Alex Pandolfo was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, a condition that affects the brain and a person’s cognitive function, eventually leaving them unable to look after themselves.
And he immediately knew what he was going to do when the doctor told him the news:
His story comes as the Isle of Man looks set to legalise assisted dying and allow terminally ill residents with less than 12 months to live to kill themselves.
Speaking to LADbible in a new documentary, The Island Choosing Death, which explores the controversial bill, Alex opened up about his diagnosis and how he took the decision to end his life when his condition deteriorates.
The 70-year-old, who lives in Lancaster, England – where a similar bill was recently raised in parliament – was working as an education consultant at the time, and said he knew something wasn’t right when he noticed time seemed to be ‘vanishing’.
“I’d be sat down at the table and it’d be morning, and then some radio programme might come on or the television might come on and I’m thinking, ‘Where’s that day gone?'” he told us.
“I was having little mishaps in the kitchen, or not eating, things like that, so I went to see the doctor and he referred me to the memory clinic, and he said, ‘You’ve got Alzheimer’s’.”
Surprised by his calm reaction, the doctor asked why he didn’t seem ‘particularly concerned’ by the diagnosis, with Alex explaining he already had a plan.
‘It’s something that I suspected and I know exactly what course of action I will be taking’, he told the doctor. ‘I’m a long term supporter of assisted dying, I’m not going to go home straight away and do it but certainly over the next couple of months or weeks I will be filling an application form for an assisted death’.
Alex Pandolfo decided to have an assisted death after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s (LADbible)
But when it came to actually putting together his application, Alex said he was surprised by one particular aspect of it.
“Applying for assisted death in Switzerland, it’s not as easy as people think, which is a good thing,” he told us.
“First thing, you’ve got to be a member of one of the centres that provide an assisted death.
“My personal process was, I wrote to Lifecircle and said that I’d been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but then you have to… do a biography.
“When I started writing it, I realised why you had to write that type of thing. What you’re writing down is probably one of the most counter-intuitive things to a human person, you’re writing why you want to die. It’s the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to write.
“And then, because I was diagnosed with a condition that raises questions about capacity, I had to go for a psych assessment, and that was just for my application, and once that had gone through, I got the green light… which was a great relief to me because I’d already planned my suicide in case I didn’t get it, because I was aware of what could come, not what would come.
Alex had to write down why he wanted to kill himself (LADbible)
“So that green light negated the need to do that, it saved my life. That was 10 years ago, I’ve had a brilliant 10 years; I don’t have to worry about what’s going to happen – if I start to deteriorate soon, I’ve got my insurance policy.”
Elsewhere in the documentary, a mother admitted that she almost took her own son’s life rather than watch him suffer.
In 2020, Millie Blenkinsop-French’s son, James, was diagnosed with an aggressive form of skin cancer after he noticed a pea-sized lump on his neck.
Over time, it ate away at him, with James sadly dying in excruciating pain the following year, aged just 51.
The 81-year-old said: “I’ve often said this to one or two people when I’ve had the conversation with them, ‘Have you ever sat and watched your child or somebody you love very much dying in horrific pain?’ ‘Well, no, not really… ‘.
“I said, ‘Well, you haven’t got a clue what you’re talking about’, I said, ‘You have not got a clue’.
“We would talk about everything, James and I, we were really, really close.
“He says, because he had dogs, he says, ‘When the dogs are poorly, to the point where there’s gonna be no hope for them’, he says, ‘You go and put them to sleep. I still can’t understand why people have got to wait until the end if there’s something can be done for them for them’.
Millie lost her son to cancer in 2021 (LADbible)
“So we had a long discussion about it. If assisted dying had been in, I know James would have opted for it.”
“Nobody should have to suffer like that, nobody.”
She added: “There’s nothing like losing your child. Yeah, I know he was 51, but he was still my baby, do you understand? He was my baby. And it just didn’t seem fair. Why?”
But the assisted dying bill has divided people on the Isle of Man, with man deeply concerned about the impact it could have on the most vulnerable.
Some believe that it could see elderly residents forced to go through with it rather than become a burden on their families.
Dr Duncan Gerry told us that he has deep concerns about the impact it would have how it could be abused.
“This law demands that health professionals go down a route and a rabbit hole that we’ve never done before, which is actively seeking to end life,” he explained.
“My challenge is, having looked in depth of what assisted dying does in the jurisdictions it comes into, one person’s choice can negatively impact on somebody else.
“I’m very much a logical thinker, so I’m trying to work to the logic of what it means and what the implications are and what the outcomes might be, and who’s going to be harmed more or less by it. And in terms of logic, it feels to me that you can’t come up with an answer that works for assisted dying.”
He added: “Does my gut instinct tell me the same thing? Absolutely.”
Alex has previously spoken to us for our ‘Minutes With’ series. You can watch it here.
Featured Image Credit: LADbible
Topics: UK News, Health, Mental Health, Documentaries, TV and Film
Dominic Smithers
Father of woman who went missing after flying into airport spoke out about search for her before his death
He went to LA to search for his missing daughter before he died
Warning: This article contains discussion of suicide which some readers may find distressing.
The father of a woman who went missing in Los Angeles after seemingly missing her connecting flight to New York spoke out before he was found dead days later.
Hannah Kobayashi flew from Hawaii to LAX on 8 November with the intention of catching a flight to New York, with security footage spotting the 31-year-old leaving the plane.
She had flown out on the same flight as an ex-boyfriend, with the tickets booked before they had split up.
However, she didn’t catch her next flight and her whereabouts at the time were unknown, though she was then spotted the following day (9 November) at The Grove Shopping Mall between midday and 3pm, and then at Taschen Books.
She sent a photo to her aunt at 2:43pm that day and then returned to the LA airport, calling her aunt after she arrived to say she was still trying to reach New York.
Ryan Kobayashi went to LA to search for his missing daughter, but was later found dead himself (ABC 7)
On 10 November, she was spotted in a YouTube video of at an event in LA featuring LeBron James, while still wearing the same clothes she’d arrived to LA in.
That afternoon she was spotted talking to a ticketing agent back at the airport, but her family then filed a missing persons report after ‘uncharacteristic correspondence’.
She’d sent strange text messages, including one which read: “Deep Hackers wiped my identity, stole all of my funds, & have had me on a mind f**k since Friday.”
She was seen boarding the LAX Metro C line on the night of 11 November, and then at 10:03pm spotted leaving the Metro Pico station with an unidentified individual.
On that same day, family members arrived in the city to search for her, including her father Ryan Kobayashi.
Speaking to Inside Edition about his missing daughter, he said: “I’m really just twisting and turning for the last week about what’s going on.
Hannah Kobayashi (left) missed her connecting flight to New York and was stuck in LA, she then went missing (Facebook)
“It just seems like everything’s coming at a blur and it’s just so overwhelming at times, I wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
Tragically, the 58-year-old father was found dead at the bottom of a car park in the early hours of 24 November.
NBC News reported that while the search for the missing woman continued, police had confirmed that Ryan Kobayashi died after jumping off the seventh floor of a car park.
The 58-year-old had previously told the outlet it was ‘every parent’s nightmare’ and appealed to his daughter to ‘please come home’.
In a statement to Inside Edition, the family said: “The Kobayashi family suffered a devastating tragedy today. After tirelessly searching throughout Los Angeles for 13 days, Hannah’s father tragically took his own life.
“This loss has compounded the family’s suffering immeasurably.”
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123.
Featured Image Credit: NBC News
