Latest news with #Wellings
Yahoo
15-07-2025
- Yahoo
Jury returns verdict over Jaguar Land Rover collision that led to amputation
A project manager has been cleared of a health and safety offence after one of his staff lost part of his leg in a forklift truck collision at Jaguar Land Rover. Gordon Wellings, aged 66, was accused of being responsible for an incident at the plant in Lode Lane, Solihull on August 13, 2020, when he was overseeing the installation of high-level pipework. A trial at Birmingham Crown Court heard that he had tasked Kevin McGunnigle and a colleague to move some large unused pipes. READ MORE: 'Chop your legs off' - Full story of honeytrap plot sparked by Facebook post The workers decided to use a forklift truck to transport the six metre long, 40 kilogram tubes from the far corner of the warehouse, known as the 'graveyard', to the location where they were to be installed. But as they negotiated a dog-leg bend 57-year-old Mr Gunnigle, who was walking alongside the truck guiding the way, got his leg caught underneath the vehicle. It resulted in him having to have part of the limb amputated. Mr Wellings, of Longheadland in Ombersley, Droitwich, was accused of only giving Mr Gunnigle and his colleague 'vague instructions' before he 'left them to get on with it'. It was also argued by the prosecution he had not completed a risk assessment and method statement or sought approval for the job from principal contractor Fox Health and Safety Services. However following nine hours' deliberation a jury found Mr Wellings not guilty of a health and safety offence by a majority verdict. He was subsequently acquitted.
The Guardian
25-03-2025
- The Guardian
UK police to charge more abusers with manslaughter after suicide of partner
A senior police chief has unveiled a plan to charge more domestic abusers with manslaughter after their partners take their own lives. It comes after the death of Kiena Dawes, whose partner Ryan Wellings was cleared of manslaughter but convicted of domestic abuse. Wellings had subjected Dawes to repeated assaults and verbal abuse before she killed herself and left a suicide note on her phone in which she described Wellings as a monster, stating: 'Slowly … Ryan Wellings killed me.' He was jailed in January for six and a half years. The case was referred to at the launch of the annual national police report on domestic homicides. It revealed that the most common cause of death among domestic abuse victims in England and Wales, in the year to the end of March 2024, was suspected suicide for the second year running. It was only the second time a man has stood trial for causing his partner's suicide, with the first in 2006 also resulting in an acquittal. The charge has been successfully brought only once: in 2017, when Nicholas Allen pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of Justene Reece. The jury heard repeated evidence of the violence Wellings meted out on Dawes including: trying to strangle her with an iPhone charger cable; screaming at her that she was a 'slag', throwing a stool at her and telling her to kill herself; putting a drill to her face and saying he would drill her teeth out of her mouth; and threatening to make Dawes look like the TV presenter and acid attack survivor Katie Piper. While he was jailed for six and a half years for assault and coercive and controlling behaviour, Dawes's mother said 'justice has not been done in the way we all hoped'. Assistant commissioner Louisa Rolfe, the National Police Chiefs' Council lead for domestic abuse, said it was 'heartening' that more investigations are being launched into deaths after domestic abuse, and spoke of her regret that a manslaughter conviction had not been achieved in the case. This was despite the 'excellent' work of investigators and the 'extensive trail' left by the Dawes family, she added. Another case cited by Rolfe on Monday was one in which a woman died after she was pushed from a rocky outcrop at a Scottish beauty spot, as part of a police investigation looking more deeply into whether domestic abuse was a hidden factor in unexpected deaths. Fawziyah Javed, 31, died when she was pushed from Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh by her abusive husband Kashif Anwar, who falsely claimed he had slipped and bumped into her while the couple were on holiday in 2021. Anwar, 29, from Leeds, was found guilty of the murder of his wife and causing the death of her unborn child. She had used her dying words to reveal it was Anwar who pushed her, telling a witness: 'Don't let my husband near me, he pushed me.' In April 2023, Anwar was sentenced to a minimum prison sentence of 20 years. Sign up to First Edition Our morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what's happening and why it matters after newsletter promotion A recommendation in the report for police to check for a history of domestic abuse when there is an unexpected death was welcomed by the End Violence Against Women Coalition (EVAW), which said there was a need to urgently address gaps in identifying domestic abuse and coercive controlling behaviour. 'This is contributing to the high number of domestic abuse reports that do not result in charges being brought against a perpetrator,' said Andrea Simon, EVAW's director. 'We know that many victims do not feel able to report to the police, and these proposals could help shed light on the devastating scale and impact of abuse, including holding perpetrators accountable for deaths by suicide following abuse.' Sarah Davidge, the head of research and evaluation at Women's Aid, said the report proved that domestic abuse is a national emergency. 'Whilst we welcome the government's ambition to halve violence against women and girls in a decade, a truly effective response to this national emergency requires sustained, adequate funding for specialist domestic abuse services,' she added. If you are experiencing domestic abuse you can contact the Refuge freephone 24-hour national domestic abuse helpline: 0808 2000 247 or visit In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@ or jo@ In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at
BBC News
17-02-2025
- Health
- BBC News
Mum's hay fever symptoms lead to 'one in a million' cancer diagnosis
A mum who thought she was suffering from hay fever was "shocked" to discover she has a rare cancer which affects fewer than one in a million Wellings, from Gloucestershire, was told by doctors in 2021 that she was the only person in the UK living with sinonasal mucosal melanoma (SNMM).The aggressive tumours had attached to her eye and it took surgeons 11 hours to remove them, leaving Ms Wellings with a permanent hole in her face the "size of a small orange".The 63-year-old has said she is "giving herself to science" so people diagnosed with SNMM in the future will have a better chance at treatment options. Ms Wellings symptoms first appeared during the Covid-19 pandemic but she initially dismissed it as allergies, despite never having suffered from hay fever."I'd had no pain, just runny eyes, runny nose, sneezing and eventually a nosebleed," she said."It came as such a shock to be told I had cancer, let alone one so rare."Ms Wellings underwent several surgeries to remove the tumours but they soon returned, fusing her eyeball to the surrounding bone."The only way we could eradicate and control my disease was to lose my eye, but I was willing to do that just to live," she took several skin grafts and veins from her arm to rebuild her face. But the grafts did not take, meaning she was left with a permanent hole where her eye socket her latest scans show the cancer is stable. Ms Wellings is now backing a call from Cancer Research UK for people to leave a gift to the charity in their Gifts in Wills scheme funds a third of the charity's work, which has helped double cancer survival in the UK by investing in pioneering trials and research."Advances in research mean people are being diagnosed earlier, have access to kinder and more effective treatments, and some cancers are prevented completely," Ms Wellings said."People could help give the gift of hope to many more people like me."
