A passenger who saw a brother and sister pushing pieces of kebab into a man’s mouth on a train to Barrow said the pair were being ‘silly, but not malicious’.

Nicole Cavin, 22, and David Noble, 32, deny manslaughter after David Clark, 56, choked to death on a piece of kebab meat on the last train on March 2, 2018.

Giving evidence at Preston’s Nightingale Court at Preston North End, Daniel Cully said he saw Mr Clark ‘playing along with the joke’ when the pair started to put the meat into his mouth.

He said Mr Clark seemed drunk and was smirking when Cavin and Noble began putting pieces of kebab in his mouth.

In a statement given shortly after Mr Clark’s death, Mr Cully said: “They started putting food in his mouth and at first he started to chew but then they were doing it more and more.

“They were forcing kebab and I think bread into his mouth... it seemed like a laugh.

“They were joking around but it went too far.”

Giving evidence, Mr Cully told the court: “It didn’t seem like they were being aggressive towards him in a malicious way, just they were being silly, like they thought it was funny.”

But he told the court the pair carried on pushing food into his mouth as Mr Clark began to drift off to sleep.

Throughout the trial, witnesses have described how Mr Clark got out of his seat and collapsed in the aisle.

Fellow passengers tried to perform the Heimlich maneuver but were unable to dislodge the meat from Mr Clark’s throat.

Cavin followed instructions relayed from the 999 operator but Mr Clark tragically died, the court heard.

Mr Cully said he saw Cavin on the platform as the emergency services boarded the train and tried to save Mr Clark’s life.

He said: “I told her it was her fault the man was on the floor.

“I said it quite angrily.”

Cavin, of Market Street, Grange, and Noble, of Main Street, Grange, deny manslaughter.