Neighbour heard nothing

A former neighbour of the Van Breda family at the De Zalze security estate in Stellenbosch told the Western Cape High Court yesterday she did not hear anything from 12 Goske Street on the night of the murders on January 26, 2015.

Defence witness Annelize Taljaard testified that, as a mother, she is a light sleeper, but did not wake up that night. She said sound travelled in the estate and her sleep would be disturbed if people laughed or were partying.

But she did not hear shouts for help, a laughing attacker, or Teresa van Breda asking what was going on. State prosecutor Megan Blows said these were claims of Henri van Breda, pictured, in his plea explanation, an “untested version” of what happened that night.

Taljaard lived at No 14 Goske Street but as Blows pointed out, a double-storey house was under construction between her home and the Van Breda family home.

Earlier in the trial, neighbour Stephanie Op’t Hof, who lived at No 10 Goske Street, testified she heard loud male voices arguing between 10pm and midnight. Blows said her house was much closer to the Van Breda home, as it was opposite with no houses in between.

During cross-examination, the defence put it to Op’t Hof that the sounds she had heard were from a movie the family had been watching, but she said she was sure it was fighting she had heard.

Taljaard agreed when Blows put to her: “The fact that you didn’t hear it doesn’t mean Mrs Op’t Hof couldn’t.”

Henri van Breda, 22, has claimed a laughing, axe-wielding intruder was behind the attacks that killed his mother Teresa, father Martin and brother Rudi. – ANA