Darren Bray, 29, died after eating a cheeseburger whole (Picture: Wales News Service)

A father-of-three choked to death on a McDonald’s cheeseburger when he tried to eat it in one mouthful, an inquest has heard.

Darren Bray, 29, told friends to ‘watch this’ before putting the 99p burger in his mouth during a night out.

Soon after he put it in his mouth he went blue and started choking on the cheese burger.

Sam Bisgrove said: ‘He picked up the burger and rolled it half and then said “watch this” before putting the whole burger into his mouth.


He folded the burger in half before putting it into his mouth (Picture: McDonald’s)

‘I could see him trying to cough it up and he was making horrible coughing noises. I tried to hit his back to help him clear his airway.’



An inquest was told that Darren, of Barry, South Wales, ate the burger at a friend’s house after drinking cans of beer.

Sam’s girlfriend Amy Bennett said: ‘Sam said he was going to McDonald’s on his way back and Darren asked him to order him a cheeseburger.

‘Darren took his burger and rolled into a ball then pushed it into his mouth.’

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Paramedics arrived at the house in Barry, South Wales, and performed CPR on Darren.

But they were unable to restart his heart and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Dr Rhiannon Trefor told Cardiff Coroner’s Court that Darren died from a blockage to his airway.

She said: ‘When we did an internal examination there was an eight by five centremetre ball of food stuck at the back of his neck.

‘Darren would not have been able to breath with that in his airway. Death would have followed quite quickly from a choking of this nature.’

The hearing Darren had been drinking and was one and a half times over the legal drink-drive limit. But the doctor said it was not enough to ‘affect his judgement’.

Assistant Coroner Christopher Woolley recorded a conclusion of misadventure at the Cardiff inquest.