Passionate final defence of Van Breda
ADVOCATE Piet Botha gave a passionate delivery of his final arguments in defence of triple murder accused Henri van Breda, prompting Judge Siraj Desai to ask him to “calm down”.
Botha told the Western Cape High Court the evidence of the State was of poor quality and that it had not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
In the final leg of the trial of 23-year-old Van Breda, the defence must convince the court that the accused’s version of what happened in the early hours of January 27, 2015 is reasonably possibly true.
Van Breda has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder, one of attempted murder and one of obstructing the ends of justice. He claims that his mother Teresa, father Martin and older brother Rudi were killed by a laughing, axe-wielding intruder wearing a balaclava, gloves and dark clothing.
His sister Marli, 16 at the time, survived, but “not because of a lesser attack, but rather a miracle”, according to the State.
Botha argued that his client was a good witness and had not deviated from his version.
He said the State had relied on speculation: “Inference must be drawn from the facts.” Furthermore, he said a neighbour’s testimony that she had heard loud male voices arguing between 10pm and midnight on January 26 for two hours “unabated” was impossible.
But Judge Desai said there was no reason for an objective witness, who did not know the family, to lie to the court.
Botha was adamant, however, that what Stephanie Opt’hof heard was “mistaken” and she had in fact heard the dramatic, action-packed movie Martin van Breda and his two sons watched that night.
Whats App messages between Marli and her boyfriend, and Henri and his girlfriend, did not indicate a family fight.
The only evidence of a “slight family altercation had been two weeks before that”. Botha told the court that the estate was not secure and only 35% of its perimeter had cameras at the time of the incident. He said there were “glaring vulnerabilities” in the system and the windows of the Van Breda home on the ground floor had been unlocked and open. – ANA