OVER TO YOU, RASSIE Terrified cash-in-transit war drivers speak out Axe killer shaken by jail attack

CONVICTED axe murderer Henri van Breda was attacked by five Pollsmoor inmates while making his way back to the hospital section earlier this week.

But he escaped serious injury after being rescued in the nick of time by a fellow hospital section inmate who ripped a metal condom dispenser from the wall and used it as a weapon to deter Van Breda’s assailants.

However the respite was short-lived when the attackers turned on Van Breda for a second time, chasing him and his rescuer back to the hospital section where they managed to slam a security door in their faces.

“Henri said it was a terrifying, horrible experience,” said Van Breda’s attorney, Lorinda van Niekerk, after visiting her client yesterday.

“But he is coping well after being counselled by nursing staff.”

Van Breda was accosted on a stairwell while walking back to his cell following a visit by his uncle, André du Toit, and his girlfriend, Danielle Janse van Rensburg.

He had no escort at the time and was carrying a bag of food brought by his visitors.

“Henri said his attackers knew who he was and he got the impression they were targeting him,” said advocate Pieter Botha, who accompanied Van Niekerk to Pollsmoor yesterday.

Botha confirmed his client was “very shaken up” by the surprise attack.

“But he is now in reasonably good spirits. I didn’t get the impression that he is in fear of his life. But if he were moved to the general population section he would fear for his life. There’s no doubt in my mind that then he will be targeted.”

Botha said that Van Breda was “completely taken aback when told that newspapers were reporting that he had attempted suicide. That was the first he had heard of it. Apparently that tip came form an inmate who called a reporter during the week.”

Van Breda was convicted two weeks ago of murdering his mother, father and brother with a family braai axe and attempting to murder his sister at their Stellenbosch golf estate home in 2015.

Correctional Services spokesperson Singabakho Nxumalo described reports of Van Breda’s attempted suicide as “fake news”.

“A journalist fabricated that story from an anonymous call,” he said.

He also denied that Van Breda had been attacked.

“He is in the hospital wing. Who is going to attack him there?”

Van Breda, 23, returns to the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday for sentencing.

Judge Siraj Desai is expected to hand down multiple life sentences to Van Breda who he described as an “unimpressive” witness who displayed “a peculiar lack of empathy” after the horrific and brutal axe killings.