Man dies of heart attack and in row with builders accessing land, partner claims
A man died after a heart attack following a dispute with builders doing work outside his property, his partner has claimed.
Stephen Habberley is said to have suffered a heart attack after he was rushing to his campervan to block some builders in Abercynon, Rhondda Cynon Taf. The 64-year-old SAS veteran went to put his keys in the ignition when he lost consciousness. He survived a further three days at the University Hospital of Wales after his partner Kerry Bishop and a neighbour administered CPR.
Ms Bishop told WalesOnline: "One moment he was arguing with the workers and the next he'd gone, just like that. I'm still in shock. I'm angry, upset, devastated. I just feel lost. What makes it worse is that the whole thing was so needless."
She claimed Mr Habberley suffered multiple similar disputes to the one that took place shortly before his heart attack. They centred around a disagreement with the Keys Group, a national children and family support organisation which has land nearby and said it required access via the land Mr Habberley rented.
Mr Habberley's landlord, Anthony Goodall, owns a section of the land at the front of the property and several acres behind the house at Parry's Drive. Despite this, Ms Bishop claimed the Keys Group often requested work to be carried out in the lane partially owned by Mr Goodall.
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Mr Habberley was known for his love of music (Media Wales)The Keys Group said it had a legal right of way to access its property via the lane and could repair the lane for safe transport of vehicles to its premises where necessary. It said it always sought appropriate permissions before carrying out any repair work on or around its property and had done so in this instance.
Mr Habberley had PTSD and had suffered a heart attack back in 2013 - after which he had two stents fitted. Ms Bishop claimed that her husband had proved ownership of the land to the police. She claimed that it was this which led to work stopping, but The Keys Group pointed out that it had stopped work on the lane out of respect for the family.
Recalling the morning of the incident, Ms Bishop, 63, claimed: "Two workers arrived shortly after 9am on January 10 with a skip lorry and they asked that Steve remove his car from the road so they could fit through to begin the work.
"Steve asked them what work they intended to do, which they never told us, they just said they'd been sent by Keys Group to carry out work in the lane. But part of the lane is owned by the landlord and another portion is owned by the neighbour, neither of which had granted permission.
"Steve called his landlord Anthony and asked if any permission had been granted and Anthony confirmed no permission had been given, so Steve said they couldn't come onto the land. Steve was also concerned with the weight of the vehicles over the culvert which runs under the lane. After this dispute went on for a while, the two workers left and we thought that might have been it, but they came back with a digger. They were refusing to go and said they'd been ordered to work there."
Ms Bishop said Mr Habberley told the workers they'd have to run him over to get past him. He then jumped on the back of one of the vehicles and began bouncing up and down on it. "The dispute went on for probably more than 30 minutes," she claimed. "Steve phoned the police but they refused to come out because they said it was a civil matter. Steve then said if the police weren't going to sort it out he'd sort it himself.
"He was the sort of person who wouldn't back down. The adrenaline was going. I could see him out there going white and breathing heavily. I asked him at one point to come in out of the cold but I knew he wouldn't stop until they left. He said: 'I've had enough, I'm getting the camper.' Minutes later I could see smoke coming from the top of the camper which I'd never seen happen before. I went down to check on him and he was slumped unconscious in the driver's seat. I rang 999 and a neighbour ran out and we did CPR for what felt like 20 minutes until the ambulance got here.
"They managed to get him back but he died on January 13 after he'd been in a coma. The doctors said he'd had a major heart attack and had he survived he would have been severely brain damaged. I know some people might think: 'Was all that really worth it?' But Steve was a very principled man. I knew he wouldn't let it go. It keeps going through my mind that I should have got him in and out of that situation, but he'd have seen that as giving in. It was so needless."
Paying tribute to Mr Habberley, who she'd been with for 18 years after they moved in together after meeting on Myspace, Ms Bishop added: "Steve had his issues but he was a lovely and kind person who would help anyone. I've had no end of messages of condolence and love for Steve. He became particularly popular within the local music scene, where he had a brilliant talent for playing guitar. His favourite was heavy rock but he'd often play all sorts at the local pub, where they nicknamed him Fingers. He was still gigging four or five nights a week and he was enjoying retirement. He was a talented man and could turn his hand to anything."
A spokeswoman for the Keys Group said: "We always seek appropriate permissions before carrying out any repair work on or around our property, as was the case in this instance. Work to make repairs to the drive has been temporarily suspended as a mark of respect. We were incredibly saddened to hear of the death of our neighbour Mr Habberley and our thoughts and best wishes remain with his family and friends at this very difficult time."
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