Digger helps bury 52-stone man in marathon funeral ceremony

A MAN weighing 52-stone was winched into his giant grave yesterday — with the help of a mechanical digger.

Just a solitary “good Samaritan” attended the council-paid funeral service of 29-year-old John Christian Jeffrey, in Taunton, who had no known relatives.

It took cemetery workers more than four hours to lower Jeffrey’s coffin — which was more than twice the size of a typical casket — in to his grave, before the service began.

The Rev Geoff Boucher read a series of prayers in a five-minute service at St James Cemetery.

He said: “The most important thing for us was that he was allowed to be laid to rest in dignity. It was the least he deserved.”

Gravediggers spent four days preparing the 4ft 8ins x 7ft 8ins grave. A 4ft x 7ft coffin using reinforced MDF had been prepared for the heavyweight Jeffrey, who was originally from London but had been sleeping rough in Taunton.

He was buried rather than cremated because his body was too wide, a cemetery groundsman said.

Taunton Deane Borough Council said the funeral cost £800 (€1,000).