Coroner rejects account of last man to see drag queen alive in sordid sexual encounter

Warning: This is a report of the inquest into the death of Darren Meah-Moore in Cardiff and contains evidence that may be distressing

(Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE)

A coroner has rejected the account of the last man to see a drag queen alive in a sordid sexual encounter. Coroner David Regan returned his findings after a week-long inquest into the death of Darren Meah-Moore in a Cardiff lane.

Coroner Regan told the hearing at Pontypridd Coroner’s Court that he did not accept the man’s account that he put cardboard over the 39-year-old drag queen to keep him warm after he fell asleep following their meeting.

And Coroner Regan also said he did not believe the man’s account that his dog had spontaneously joined in sexual activity between the pair in the Cardiff lane. But he said he had no evidence to show whether Mr Meah-Moore, who had an allergy to dogs, had wanted the dog to join in.

The five-day hearing had heard the events that led to the 39-year-old’s death in a lane close to Windsor Place and Park Lane in Cardiff city centre on Sunday, January 22, 2023.

Over the preceding hours of a night out in Cardiff, Mr Meah-Moore, of Newport, who performed as a drag queen under the names CC Quinn, Crystal Coutoure and Dolly Diamond, had spent time in lanes with two men before leaving a nightclub and encountering the man and his dog.

Returning his conclusion, coroner Regan said: “The deceased and the man encountered each other without pre-arrangement in Queen Street, Cardiff, at 5.49am on the morning of Sunday, January 22.

“Prior to that time, the deceased had had at least one other sexual encounter that night, and had joked about intending to perform oral sex on a male. The deceased followed a man, accompanied by his dog, into Park Lane in Cardiff.

“Darren and the male walked down Park Lane and walked together toward a blind alley at Valentino’s car park, out of view of a camera. There is no evidence either were acting in anything other than a voluntary manner at that time. They remained out of view for 30 minutes.

“The man then returned to view without his dog and returned to view eight minutes later, before returning to the alleyway with cardboard. Darren never emerged from the alleyway. At some stage between 5.52am and 6.38am, the man’s dog penetrated Darren. Between 6.33am and 6.38am, the man covered Darren with cardboard.”

Darren Meah-Moore

In his evidence earlier in the hearing, the man had claimed that the pair performed sex acts on each other before the dog joined in, which Mr Meah-Moore encouraged. He said that the drag queen fell asleep and he covered him in cardboard to keep him warm.

Coroner Regan said: “I don’t accept that Darren was covered in cardboard by the man to keep him warm. On the evidence, he placed two sheets over him, and couldn’t reasonably have expected this to provide any warmth, however I am unable to determine that Darren was covered for any nefarious reason.”

Referring to the incident with the dog, guided by evidence given by medical professionals, Mr Regan said it would be “almost impossible” for the dog to perform the act on a human “without guidance and encouragement.”

“I don’t accept the man’s account that the dog penetrated Darren spontaneously without human act causing this to happen. I am unable to determine how this happened, however. Due to the absence of evidence, I am unable to determine whether the deceased sought sexual contact with a dog, equally there is no evidence he did not.”

Mr Regan said there was no evidence that trauma or natural disease caused Mr Meah-Moore’s death. He said he examined whether the death was caused by anaphylaxis, due to his encounter with the dog, but that medical evidence proved “an absence of any body of medical literature” of any such cause of death. He added that doctors did not exclude “fatal arrhythmia from an unknown cause”.

He said: “In my judgement, on the evidence, it is unlikely that seminal plasma hypoplasia caused the death of the deceased. I have insufficient evidence to find arrhythmia was caused by penetration of a dog.”

The coroner read out the cause of death as a result of “sudden death in a man with bronchial asthma in the cold who had consumed alcohol and in a temporal association with sexual activity including intercourse with a dog.”

Mr Regan said: “Darren had been socialising during the previous night in a number of city centre locations, and had had sexual contact with at least two males. It is likely he came to be in a collapsed state between 5.52am and 6.33am that morning following penetration by a dog whilst in the company of its owner. It is not known what caused him to be in a collapsed state.”

Mr Regan returned an open conclusion.

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