Tempers flare at axe trial
JUDGE JOUSTS WITH LAWYER OVER LINE OF QUESTIONING Defence cries foul as bench asks Henri about lack of emotion during attack.
Western Cape High Court Judge Siraj Desai yesterday questioned why Henri van Breda felt no anger after watching his brother and father being viciously attacked by an axe-wielding intruder.
According to Van Breda’s version of events, when the attacker advanced towards him and they struggled, he felt “overwhelmed” and “scared” and didn’t realise he was, in fact, the stronger of the two. “With the benefit of hindsight and now being able to think clearly, I wish I did get angry and react,” he said.
In a heated exchange with the judge, defence lawyer Piet Botha objected to the questioning, calling it “unfair”. But Desai angrily told him: “I will decide what is fair or not”.
Senior prosecutor Susan Galloway has again been highlighting the differences in Van Breda’s initial statement to the police and his plea explanation.
In a bid to clearly understand his struggle with the intruder, she asked Van Breda to demonstrate where exactly their hands had been, with police officer Sergeant Clinton Malan acting as the intruder as he, according to Van Breda’s version, matched the height of his attacker.
Using a replica wooden axe, Van Breda showed the court in an attempt to explain how he disarmed his attacker, and how he came to sustain wounds on his upper left torso and forearm.
Desai also questioned why Van Breda did not lunge after the intruder and attack him, but instead did nothing while his brother, Rudi, and father, Martin, were being attacked.
“So, in essence, you say you did nothing because you were scared”, the judge said.
Van Breda, on the verge of tears, asked for an adjournment to wash his face. After a 15-minute break, he returned to the stand composed and able to recall specific details.
“I have the distinct memory of one time he was going for my throat and I was pushing his hand down”, he told the court.
“I remember him going for my chest”.
This, Galloway pointed out, would explain the two lines on the upper part of his torso, lines which, she said, had been deemed “self-infl icted” in earlier evidence.
An expert in forensic pathology and clinical forensics had previously told the court there was a “strong contrast” in the wounds sustained by Henri van Breda and the rest of his family.
Dr Marianne Tiemensma testified that the Van Breda family members had extensive “chop wounds”, while Henri’s were very minor and just broke the skin, except for one that was slightly deeper.
She said his wounds were not infl icted with the same intent and force, and he had no defensive injuries.
Van Breda, 23, has pleaded not guilty to three charges of murder, attempted murder and defeating the ends of justice.
He claims his father, mother and older brother were murdered by a laughing, axe-wielding intruder at the family’s home on the De Zalze security estate in Stellenbosch on January 27, 2015.
His sister, Marli, who was 16 at the time, survived the attack.
The state alleges that Henri committed the killings and that his wounds were self-infl icted in a bid to make it look like he, too, was a victim.
Yesterday, Galloway questioned how Van Breda was able to disarm the attacker.
“What I find difficult to believe, don’t you also find it strange, that this person who has just attacked at least your brother and father, he is coming towards you to attack you. You have no way of knowing if he may have different intent with you as he is still armed with an axe and is laughing similarly to when he attacked your father. This attacker is coming to execute a similar attack on you. The first blow to your father incapacitated him.
“He executed an attack on Rudi, why would this person be so readily disarmable?”
Van Breda admitted he was “surprised” by how easily he was able to take the axe out of his attacker’s hand.
Despite having a “back up weapon”, a knife, Galloway said the only wounds the attacker managed to infl ict were “superficial and nonfatal”. “Correct,” said Van Breda. Galloway pointed out that Marli, “who had fought back the hardest”, wasn’t very successful in defending herself and had been viciously attacked, yet Van Breda, who physically matched his attacker, sustained no defensive wounds.
Van Breda conceded the attacker had been more “restrained” with him compared with the attacks on the other members of his family.
The trial continues. – ANA