An inquest into William Chapman’s death opens at 10am in Doncaster Coroner’s Court after the 23-year-old was killed by a tiger at Yorkshire Wildlife Park on October 10. Chapman's family says the online circulation of attack footage is leaving them in severe distress.
William Chapman was pronounced dead at the scene after emergency services were contacted shortly after 1.30pm, following his entry into the enclosure of a rare Amur tiger called Altai. His family described him as “bright, warm and engaging” and said he had been prescribed strong medication.
Doncaster Coroner’s Court
The inquest begins at Civic Office, Waterdale, with the coroner expected to examine the sequence of events around the death rather than any wider dispute over the wildlife park itself. A coroner’s inquest can test the timeline, the medical background, and the circumstances of a death in a way that matters to family members seeking a formal account.
Chapman was visiting the park alone, and that detail leaves the route into the enclosure as the central factual gap for the hearing to address. The public record already fixes the basic chronology: the entry into the enclosure, the emergency call shortly after 1.30pm, and the declaration of death at the scene.
William Chapman’s family
The family statement adds a separate layer to the case. They said Chapman had suffered from “significant mental illness over a number of years” and that he had been “prescribed strong medication,” while also describing him as “bright, warm and engaging.”
That account means the coroner will have to weigh the medical background alongside the physical events at Yorkshire Wildlife Park in Doncaster. The family also said “deeply offensive media content is causing them severe distress,” after Donald Trump posted footage of the attack to 13 million followers on Truth Social and then followed it with an AI-generated video of himself grappling with a tiger.
An account linked to Republicans Against Trump answered the AI video with “WTF.” and “Someone take Grandpa’s phone away,” a response that pushed the attack footage further into public view. For Chapman’s family, the inquest is now the formal setting where the death moves from social media spectacle back to the facts of how a 23-year-old man died in an enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park.
Shirley Henderson is named among the people in the story, and the wider public context is that Chapman had earlier credits on ITV’s May Contain Nuts and the ’s True Stories series. The hearing at Doncaster Coroner’s Court is the point at which the record begins to be tested in open view.
