Focus on Van Breda’s bloody shorts, socks

A PAIR of grey shorts and white socks worn by Henri van Breda were “exposed to multiple blood-shedding events”‚ while urine was also found on the shorts.

This came to light yesterday in the Cape Town High Court, where Van Breda stands accused of the murder of his parents and brother at their luxury home at De Zalze in Stellenbosch in January 2015.

He is also on trial for the attempted murder of his sister, who suffered traumatic brain injuries and has retrograde amnesia as a result and cannot testify.

The shorts and socks have been a muchawaited focus in the case ever since the National Prosecuting Authority referenced them in June last year, when Van Breda was finally arrested – 17 months after the murders took place.

Reading from a thick file, blood spatter expert Captain Marius Joubert said he had concluded that the blood spatters suggested the grey shorts “were in close proximity to Rudi [Henri’s brother] and Martin [Henri’s father] when force was applied to the blood source of those victims”.

Some of the spatters on the shorts were saturated in urine which had fully penetrated the fabric.

Joubert said 16 mechanisms responsible for bloodstains were identified on the white socks Van Breda had been wearing in the early hours of the morning when he called emergency services for help.

The back of the socks showed that they had been exposed to “blood-shedding events in close proximity to Teresa [Henri’s mother] and Rudi too”.

The findings also suggested that the socks were in contact at some point with Martin.

Van Breda sat expressionless in the dock‚ spinning his ring‚ which he had removed from his finger‚ around and around.