Axe case: Locke set to give evidence

WELL-known horse racing commentator and TV sports anchor Martin Locke is expected to testify for axe murder accused Henri van Breda in the coming weeks.

Locke, who was a neighbour of the Van Breda family, was on the state witness list but was not called to the stand.

Henri van Breda, who turns 23 next month, is accused of axing his mother, father and brother to death and attempting to murder his sister, Marli, in the family home at De Zalze Golf Winelands Estate in Stellenbosch in January 2015.

At a court inspection of the crime scene earlier this year, Locke told journalists that he was awake and up at about 3.30am on the morning of the murders but “never heard anything.”

That means Locke was awake during the murders and when Van Breda placed his first call of help to his friend, Bianca van der Westhuizen, at 4.24am. The call went unanswered.

Another neighbour has testified she heard a heated family argument that night.

According to Van Breda’s plea statement, he disarmed an attacker and chased him, and possibly a second attacker, out of his house after they had brutally axed his family to death.

Locke was due to get married that morning and struggled to drive out of his road because of the police and paramedic presence.

During the court inspection Locke told the media that the Van Bredas were a “fantastic” family.