Van Breda testifies his family was happy before attack
TRIPLE murder accused Henri van Breda described the emotional state of his family as “happy” on the night of the axe attacks that killed his mother, Teresa, father, Martin, and brother, Rudi, in their Stellenbosch home in January 2015.
He was adamant that a neighbour, Stephanie Op’t Hof, who testified earlier in the trial, had not heard loud male voices arguing between 10pm and midnight, as she had testified, but had in fact heard the soundtrack of Star Trek 2, the movie he had watched with his father and brother.
But senior state prosecutor Susan Galloway said he added a “time lapse” to fit in with her testimony.
“You realised that Op’t Hof heard male voices shouting, you had to give an explanation of what she heard from your house. And so you had to move the movie to a later time. That is why you said your father worked on his laptop after dinner.”
On Tuesday, Van Breda told the court that his father worked after dinner, a detail he left out of his police statement.
“It was a new event that slipped in. If you watched the movie straight after dinner, your timeline would not have worked. You testified that dinner was at 7.30pm and takes half an hour, if you watched (the) movie after dinner then it wouldn’t make sense that Op’t Hof only heard the movie at 10pm,” Galloway said.
Van Breda said he thought Op’t Hof was “misguided”.
Galloway also referred to testimony from sister Marli’s boyfriend, James Reade-Jahn. Marli, who was 16 at the time survived, but suffered severe head injuries and has retrograde amnesia. Reade-Jahn testified that the father was dominant and controlling.
“I am not surprised by James’s opinion. I would agree with him somewhat. My father was a very strong man, he had lots of companies, he was always the boss, dominant would be an accurate word, I guess”, Van Breda told the court yesterday.
He said Reade-Jahn had been Marli’s first serious boyfriend, “so naturally dad was very protective over her”.
Cross-examination also focused on the fact that Van Breda did not go to the aid of his father when he was attacked, as he had been “too scared”. He agreed
when asked by Judge Siraj Desai that the intruder had targeted his brother Rudi specifically. Van Breda had come out of the bathroom and stood frozen in the corner of the small room, but had called for help. His father had rushed into the room, switched on the light and then been attacked himself. After attacking the father, the intruder had “giggled”, Van Breda told the court.
When his mother came running towards the room and asked what was going on, the attacker moved towards her.
Galloway put it to Van Breda that it was strange the attacker had not turned on Van Breda himself, who he must have known was male from his deep voice and earlier calls for help.
Van Breda said the attacker giggled after attacking his father to which Judge Desai asked “like he was having fun, enjoying what he was doing?” “It appeared so,” Van Breda told the court. Galloway also put it to Van Breda that his description of the intruder in his initial police statement had been “stereotypical” and “vague”: “It boils down to an unknown black man wearing gloves and a balaclava.”
Van Breda said: “The word coloured is not used in Australia. When I said black, perhaps it should have been coloured.”
He later told the court he did not recall the axe being in the house. During the trial, the family’s domestic worker Precious Munyongani told the court the axe looked exactly like the one kept in the pantry.
Galloway consistently highlighted differences between Van Breda’s plea explanation and his statements.