‘Complicated’ Van Breda trial postponed for preparation
THE mammoth trial of 23-year-old triple murder accused Henri Van Breda is finally drawing to a close and was postponed in the Western Cape High Court after the defence closed its case.
Judge Siraj Desai postponed the trial, which has spanned 63 days, to February 12 to give the State and defence time to prepare arguments in what he described as a “complicated case”.
Neurologist Dr James Butler finished his testimony adamant that in his opinion malingering (or feigning illness) in this case was highly unlikely and that a diagnosis of juvenile myoclonic epilepsy was “without doubt”.
As the final defence witness, Butler was called to testify about Van Breda’s diagnosis of epilepsy after he experienced a seizure on November 8 and was admitted to hospital for a weekend of tests.
Butler told the court he believed Van Breda had a seizure on January 27, 2015, when his parents and older brother were murdered, and his sister seriously injured.
He testified that a seizure and “postictal state” (in which the brain is dysfunctional) could account for the two hours and 40 minute lapse in Van Breda’s timeline of events.
Butler told the court earlier this week that the time lapse, which Van Breda claimed was the time he was unconscious before contacting emergency services, was not just amnesia.
“For him to lie there for two hours and 40 minutes means it’s more than amnesia.
“That could be a seizure of two minutes and then a severe postictal period. Or it could be a long seizure of up to 40 minutes and then the rest of the time was the postictal period.”
He also testified that the lack of urgency in Van Breda’s voice when he contacted emergency services could have been as a result of him being in a postictal state.
“People are slow, sluggish and dull. He told me he felt disorientated afterwards. He said his memory was fragmented and gradually improved.”
Butler said postictal delirium typically lasts for hours and sometimes days.
Yesterday he said that in two previous instances he believes Van Breda had seizures, one in February 2016, when he had been discussing the case with his girlfriend.
“The relevance is the stress issue. Stress provoked it.”
Judge Desai pointed out that in this case the diagnosis was made two and a half years after his first seizure in January 2015, “in the middle of a trial, that is highly controversial and charged”. – ANA