MUM DIED IN GARDEN WALL COLLAPSE
AMOTHER-of-TWO was killed renovating a dream buy-tolet property with her husband when a 6ft garden wall collapsed on top of her, an inquest has heard.
Jayne Chaffey, 59, died after working in the garden of the house in Mountain Ash, near Aberdare, she bought to make over as a retirement rental.
An inquest heard Mrs Chaffey had been “joyfully weeding and decluttering” plants from the garden of the hillside house bought at auction.
The couple had snapped up the terrace house as a renovation project one month earlier after husband Andrew, formerly a police sergeant, retired.
Mrs Chaffey was just moments from finishing for the day when she declared she’d “earned a glass of Prosecco” – but tragedy struck when a breeze-block wall came crashing down.
Former Avon and Somerset Police firearms sergeant Mr Chaffey told the inquest that the pair chose the house as a property investment bought at auction for their retirement.
Mr Chaffey said: “We liked the property and, on coming away, we knew there were a few minor maintenance issues, but the main thing to fix was the rear garden.
“We decided the best course of action was driving up with our friend to tackle the garden.”
The husband and wife, along with a friend, drove 90 miles from their home in Taunton, Somerset, to the house in High Street.
An inquest heard former Taunton register office registrar Mrs Chaffey had filled six bags with brambles from the overgrown garden in October last year.
But moments after she said she had “earned a Prosecco”, the garden wall suddenly collapsed on top of her.
Mr Chaffey said he had been trying to secure a wooden fence next to the wall after noticing it was leaning into the garden.
He pushed the fence with a metal pole but suddenly heard a big bang behind him – and heard his friend shout “Jayne!”
Mr Chaffey said: “The soil we were on started to give way and we started to fall. I saw Jayne was sat up. She looked like she had passed out.”
The inquest heard Mr Chaffey saw his wife’s head roll to one side as he felt blood on her clothes.
He desperately performed CPR on her until emergency services arrived.
Mr Chaffey said: “Nothing will ever describe the devastation that Jayne’s death has caused me and my family.”
The inquest in Pontypridd heard Mrs Chaffey was rushed 18 miles to the University Hospital of Wales in Cardiff.
But she died from her injuries in the early hours of the following day, surrounded by her family.
A post-mortem examination found Mrs Chaffey died from severe hypoxic brain injury due to a cardiac arrest from a spinal injury.
Coroner Andrew Barkley recorded a conclusion of death caused by an accident.
Mr Barkley said: “Mrs Chaffey suffered catastrophic and unsurvivable and devastating injuries both to her brain and to her spine.
“She was almost immediately rendered deeply unconscious.”
Mr Barkley added it was unclear how the wall collapsed. Police found there were no suspicious circumstances.