Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Family was aware of Van Breda’s seizures
Judge Desai wants ‘prolonged’ case wrapped up
IT WAS news to the court and the public this week that triple murder accused Henri van Breda suffers from epilepsy.
But according to a soon-tobe-released book about the Van Breda family murders, Henri’s mother Teresa had some years back revealed to family and friends that her youngest son suffered “some minor seizures and a speech problem”.
Last week on Wednesday, Van Breda suffered a seizure and was admitted to hospital where he underwent a battery of tests. He was discharged on Sunday by neurologist Dr James Butler, who diagnosed Van Breda with juvenile myoclonic epilepsy.
The condition most commonly presents during childhood and, according to the Epilepsy Foundation’s website, these seizures, also known as “absence seizures” can cause “lapses in awareness, sometimes with staring” and typically “begin and end abruptly after only a few seconds”.
In Jaap Rabie’s book The De Zalze Murders – The Inside Story, he writes that Van Breda had a brain scan around 2014 in Australia as his parents were concerned about a possible brain tumour.
The book was written with the assistance of Leenta Nel, the older sister of Van Breda’s mother Teresa, who discussed Henri’s seizures with family.
Nel also discloses in the book that Leenta Nel discussed the news with some of Teresa’s friends.
“Some of us wondered whether Teresa would have lied about this mental psycho- logical condition as she called it,” writes Rabie. “In the end, we decided that Teresa would never have lied to us about it.”
Defence advocate Pieter Botha has announced that he will call Dr Butler to testify that Van Breda’s newly diagnosed epilepsy could explain why it took so long for him to summon help after his family were fatally attacked by an axe-wielding assailant.
The defence says Van Breda lost consciousness for two hours and 40 minutes because of a fall down the stairs while he was chasing the attacker, coupled with the shock of seeing his bloodied mother and seriously wounded sister on the landing outside his room.
Prosecutors on the other hand argue that Van Breda waited almost three hours for his wounded brother and sister to slowly die while he tampered with the crime scene and concocted a dodgy alibi about a crazed axe murderer who fled leaving no trace behind.
Van Breda was not in court at the time of his seizure last week as it had adjourned the previous day to give his defence time to decide if they wanted to call a psychologist to the box to shed light on Van Breda’s baffling behaviour at the crime scene, which seemed to have bothered not just the prosecution but Judge Siraj Desai as well.
Judge Desai has granted the defence a postponement until November 27.
Indicating that the trial has been “unduly prolonged” and that he wanted to get on with his life, Desai added that he wanted the trial wrapped up by December 1.