Judge rules Van Breda statement admissible
THE INITIAL statement by Henri van Breda was deemed admissible by Judge Siraj Desai.
Judge Desai, at the end of the trial within a trial, said while Henri’s statement made to sergeant Clinton Malan was admissible, he would give his reasons for this at the end of the trial.
The trial itself then quickly moved forward with State witness Cornelius Engelbrecht of the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation giving evidence on the cellphone data collected from Henri’s phone.
Engelbrecht testified about the calls that Henri made, his Google searches that morning, and also the Google maps search which the defence questioned him about.
He confirmed that a call at 4.24am was to Bianca van der Westhuizen, his girlfriend at the time.
Henri also called the wrong number for emergency services at 7.12am before calling the correct 107 number from the landline at 7.12am.
Engelbrecht also gave evidence about the internet search Henri made at 4.27am, where he Google searched “South Africa ambulance”. Engelbrecht said he didn’t see how Henri arrived at the Allemann Street address instead of the one in Goske Street, where the murders took place.
Warrant Officer André Hitchcock from the Criminal Record Centre in Worcester also took the stand, detailing his movements at the crime scene.
Hitchcock is a photographer and crime scene investigator, taking forensic samples and videos of the crime scene itself.
He explained that the Van Breda family murder scene was relatively neat and unlike house robbery crime scenes. He added that while the cupboard doors and drawers stood open in the study, nothing had been thrown out. He said the drawers in the house were also open, but nothing looked scratched out.
Hitchcock also give evidence about the blood found in the house, explaining it took him about three weeks of work on the Van Breda crime scene to collect all the samples he needed.
He explained that he took samples from the bathroom and that not all of the samples they collected were necessarily blood.
Henri stands accused of the triple murder of his brother Rudi, father Martin, mother Teresa and the attempted murder of his sister Marli.
The case is currently being heard in the Western Cape High Court and continues on Monday.