Did Van Breda fake his blackout?
I fell in pursuit of intruder who slew my family with axe – Henri
THE possibility that 22-year-old Henri van Breda faked being unconscious for two hours and 40 minutes after a gruesome axe attack at his family’s Stellenbosch home could not be excluded, the Western Cape High Court heard.
The defence’s second witness, neurosurgeon Dr Michael du Trevou, testified that it was “impossible to exclude malingering” or feigning illness. He said “post traumatic amnesia was most likely”, while a loss of consciousness was unlikely.
“This kind of amnesia is related to physical injury. As a result there is a disturbance to the brain that leads to loss of memory.”
Van Breda has pleaded not guilty to the January 2015 murders of his mother, father and brother as well as the attempted murder of his sister Marli, 16 at the time.
The accused claims an intruder armed with an axe and knife, wearing dark clothing, a balaclava and gloves, perpetrated the attacks. Van Breda said in his plea explanation that in pursuit of the attacker, he lost his footing and fell down the stairs.
“I do not know what made me fall, but my fall was quite severe,” he said.
After the attacker had fled, and he had tried to phone his girlfriend without success, the accused said he went up the stairs, where he could hear his brother Rudi in the bedroom.
On the middle landing he saw Marli moving, while his mother was not moving.
“I then lost consciousness. I am unsure whether this was due to shock or to the injuries sustained when I fell down the stairs, or a combination of both.”
Earlier in the trial, State witness and forensic pathologist Dr Marianne Tiemersma disputed Van Breda’s claims that he had been unconscious.
Van Breda claimed that he only contacted emergency services several hours after the attack because he had been unconscious, but when examined by a doctor, he had shown no signs of concussion.
Dr Tiemersma said he would have had to lose 900ml to a litre of blood to lose consciousness.
A concussion would have only caused a loss of consciousness for a couple of seconds, a minute at most; such a lengthy period of unconsciousness would have indicated serious brain injury. But, Du Trevou said that was “incorrect”.
“In cases where a patient is fully conscious afterwards, they would not necessarily have had a brain injury.”
Tiemersma further testified that if Van Breda had lost consciousness from an emotional shock, it also would not have lasted for more than a minute.
Du Trevou conceded that if Van Breda had been unconscious from a “fainting attack” it would not have lasted so long, “unless he fell and hit his head”.
He testified that he assumed Van Breda had hit his head, causing the bruising on the left side of his forehead. – ANA