Coroner in paedo drag queen demise probe believes canine was ‘inspired’ in intercourse act
WARNING, DISTRESSING CONTENT: Coroner David Regan delivered his conclusion following a week-long inquest into the death of Darren Meah-Moore in a Cardiff alleyway
Meah-Moore was last seen in a full face make-up and blonde wig(Image: WALES NEWS SERVICE)
A coroner has dismissed the version of events given by the final person to see a drag queen alive during a sordid sexual encounter. Coroner David Regan delivered his conclusion following a week-long inquest into the death of Darren Meah-Moore in a Cardiff alleyway.
Mr Regan informed the hearing at Pontypridd Coroner’s Court that he rejected the man’s claim that he placed cardboard over the 39-year-old drag queen to keep him warm after he dozed off following their encounter.
Mr Regan also stated he didn’t believe the man’s story that his dog had spontaneously participated in sexual activity between the pair in the Cardiff alleyway. However, he acknowledged having no evidence to determine whether Mr Meah-Moore, who suffered from a dog allergy, had consented to the animal’s involvement.
The five-day hearing examined the circumstances leading to the performer’s death in an alleyway near Windsor Place and Park Lane in Cardiff city centre on Sunday, January 22, 2023.
During the preceding hours of an evening out in Cardiff, Mr Meah-Moore, from Newport, who performed as a drag queen under the stage names CC Quinn, Crystal Coutoure and Dolly Diamond, had spent time in alleyways with two men before departing a nightclub and meeting the man and his dog, reports Wales Online.
Delivering his conclusion, coroner Regan stated: “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.”
During his testimony earlier in the proceedings, the individual had maintained that both parties engaged in intimate acts with one another before the animal became involved, which Mr Meah-Moore allegedly welcomed. He claimed the drag performer had dozed off and he draped cardboard over him to provide warmth.
Coroner Regan stated: “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 stated: “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.
Meah-Moore was jailed in March 1999 after being convicted of four counts of rape of a boy under 16. In 2011, he was also sentenced to a three-year community order and given 300 hours of unpaid work for breaching of a sex offender’s order.
