D-day for Henri van Breda
JUDGMENT is expected today in the De Zalze murders case in which Henri van Breda is accused of killing his parents and brother and the attempted murder of his sister.
Judge Siraj Desai is expected to give his verdict at the Western Cape High Court this morning in the case that has attracted widespread media attention.
Van Breda was 20 at the time of the murders in January 2015. His sister, Marli, 16 at the time, suffered serious injuries which left her with retrograde amnesia and unable to testify.
Van Breda claimed that his family was attacked by an intruder. He also claimed he was involved in a scuffle with the attacker.
His father Martin van Breda, 54, his mother Teresa, 55, and older brother Rudi were found dead in their lavish home at the De Zalze golf estate in Stellenbosch. Defence advocate Piet Botha argued that Henri should be acquitted, while the State believes he committed the crimes, tampered with the crime scene and that injuries he sustained during the crimes were self-inflicted in an attempt to make it look like he, too, was a victim.
It took police a year-and-a-half of investigating that culminated in Henri handing himself over to police in June 2016. He was released on R100 000 bail.
According to court papers he called his girlfriend at 4.42am on the day his family was killed, but the call went unanswered.
He then searched the internet for local emergency numbers and almost three hours later made a call to emergency services exclaiming: “My… my family and me were attacked… by a guy with an axe.”
The case started in April 2017.