Wedding guest aggressive but fell asleep suddenly – inquest
THE aunt of a man who died at a wedding reception has told an inquest he seemed “fine” and gave her a “bear hug” shortly before his death.
Kerry Morgan, a 40-year-old project manager from Caerphilly, died in the early hours of July 7, 2019, at a family wedding celebration at New Tredegar Rugby Club.
An inquest heard the father of two had been involved in an altercation in which he was held down by his brother, Kelvin Morgan, and others at the reception.
Gwent Coroner’s Court was also told that Kerry had been in a “psychotic rage” over an “innocent joke” told by their father, Melvyn Morgan.
Giving evidence yesterday, aunt April Palmer told the court she had seen how alcohol affected her nephew Kerry on a previous occasion. She said he was behaving in “a manner that wasn’t nice” and “quite nasty” at her father-in-law’s funeral, a few years before the wedding reception.
She added: “At the wedding he was fine, quite smiley and happy. Everything was lovely. He started to drink when his wife went home. He was drinking very heavily. It was one gulp and the pint was nearly gone. He was going back to the bar very frequently.
“There was a bit of a scuffle and he hit a table over and got quite angry. That was when Kelvin grabbed him by the arms. They went onto the floor.”
Ms Palmer said she recalled telling Kerry to calm down and him replying: “I don’t know what happened.”
She added: “He looked angry, eyes bulging, and his head looked really large. When he was on the floor he was grinning a lot. It didn’t look right.”
Ms Palmer told the court that Kelvin was holding Kerry on the floor “by his arms”, before Kerry appeared to calm down and was allowed to stand up again.
She described how Kerry gave her a “bear hug” at this point, adding: “I thought he was fine. I can remember him going from that situation, walking away, shoving a table, pushing chairs and getting aggressive. That’s
when Kelvin approached him again.”
Like all the witnesses who gave evidence yesterday, Ms Palmer told the court she did not see anyone put their hands on Kerry’s neck that night. Senior coroner Caroline Saunders said there was evidence of trauma to Kerry’s neck.
The inquest heard a statement made in 2019 by Kerry’s uncle, Roy Palmer, who said “everyone seemed to be getting on” before the confrontation. He added he had drunk five or six pints of Worthington’s beer, and was not drunk.
“I remember Kerry drinking Coors lager,” said Mr Palmer. “He was back and forth to the bar pretty regularly, always pints... he drank more than the rest. He was like a fish.”
Mr Palmer said it was around then that someone told him Kerry had sleep apnoea. Kerry’s widow, Rebecca, told the inquest on Tuesday that Kerry had periods when he stopped breathing while asleep and that this “would have been made worse” by alcohol. Kelvin said he had not known Kerry had sleep apnoea.
“I saw Melvyn and Kerry having words with one another,” Mr Palmer added. “Kerry pushed Melvyn away, pushed him to the chest with his hand. I remember him saying, ‘You’ve been waiting for this.’ The floor was slippery, which caused them both to fall to the floor.”
Kerry was “aggressive and had a really nasty temper” while being restrained by Kelvin, Mr Palmer told the court. He said Kerry was lying on his side and looked “really wild”, adding: “It was like he was possessed, I had never seen him like that before.”
Mr Palmer said: “I remember Kelvin wrapping his arms around Kerry’s chest and arms to restrain him. I remember him laying on his back on the floor with Kelvin holding him down.
“He was trying to get off the floor while Kelvin was holding him by the wrists to keep him down. I didn’t hear anything apart from ‘come on Kerry, for God’s sake Kerry, stop it’. At no time did I see any contact with his neck at all.
“[After losing consciousness] He was in the recovery position sleeping, really snoring and out of it. He went from being angry to falling asleep, and we thought, ‘That’s great, he’s sleeping like a big bear.’ We heard him snore half a dozen times and there were no gaps between the snores.”
Another of Kerry’s uncles, Derek Palmer, also gave a statement in 2019, which was read to the court yesterday. He described Kerry as “a strong man, hard to restrain”.
“I cannot remember how it happened, it was too fast,” he said. I got the impression they were trying to restrain Kerry because he was being aggressive.”
The inquest continues.