Henri could have faked ‘blackout’
DEFENCE WITNESS: LOSS OF CONSCIOUSNESS UNLIKELY
Van Breda says he lost his footing and fell while pursuing attacker.
The possibility that 22-year-old Henri van Breda, pictured, faked being unconscious for two hours and 40 minutes after a gruesome axe attack at his family’s Stellenbosch home could not be excluded, the Western Cape High Court heard yesterday.
The defence’s second witness, neurosurgeon Dr Michael du Trevou, testified that it was “impossible to exclude malingering” or feigning illness. He said “post traumatic amnesia was most likely”, while a loss of consciousness was unlikely.
“This kind of amnesia is related to physical injury. As a result, there is a disturbance to the brain that leads to loss of memory.”
Van Breda has pleaded not guilty to the January 2015 murders of his mother, father and brother, as well as the attempted murder of his sister Marli, who was 16 years old at the time.
The accused claims that an intruder – armed with an axe and knife, and wearing a balaclava and gloves – was behind the attacks.
Van Breda said, in his plea explanation, that during the pursuit of the attacker he lost his footing and fell down the stairs.
He added: “I do not know what made me fall, but my fall was quite severe.”
After the attacker fled, Van Breda says he tried to phone his girlfriend without success.
He then went up the stairs, where he could hear his brother Rudi in the bedroom. On the middle landing towards the top, he saw Marli moving, while his mother was not moving.
“I then lost consciousness. I am unsure whether this was due to shock or to the injuries that I sustained when I fell down the stairs, or a combination of both.”
Earlier in the trial, state witness and forensic pathologist Dr Marianne Tiemersma disputed Van Breda’s claims that he had been unconscious.
Van Breda claimed that he only contacted emergency services several hours after the attack because he had been unconscious, but when he was later examined by a doctor, he had shown no signs of concussion.
Tiemersma said he would have had to lose 900ml to a litre of blood to lose consciousness.
A concussion would have only caused a loss of consciousness for a couple of seconds or a minute at most, whereas such a lengthy period of unconsciousness would have indicated a serious brain injury.
Tiemersma further testified that if he had lost consciousness from an emotional shock, it also would not have lasted for more than a minute.
The trial continues. – ANA