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Van Breda Axe-Murders: From A to Z, his Week in Court in Review

Van Breda Axe-Murders: From A to Z, his Week in Court in Review

Henri Van Breda must be relieved that the weekend is in sight, after a week he spent testifying in his own defence in the trial in which he is accused of axe-murdering his father, mother and brother in 2015. It’s been four days in which more questions were asked than answered. Here’s your A-Z summary of Van Breda’s performance on the stand thus far. By REBECCA DAVIS.

A is for Axe

A good portion of Henri Van Breda’s time on the stand this week was spent being made to demonstrate attacks on himself and family members with a replica of the axe that was used as the murder weapon. This was a gift to the media, as visuals of Van Breda swinging an axe are, ahem, powerful. The axe itself was revealed to be surprisingly small: if you pictured a big woodcutter’s tool, think again. The weapon in question was about the length of an average forearm – though obviously equipped with a fierce blade.

B is for Beneke

Colonel Dean Beneke was the policeman who took down the original statement given by to police, and his name was heard frequently in court this week. Van Breda attributed almost every discrepancy between his police statement and his plea explanation to Beneke having misrepresented his words. When part of the police statement was quoted to Van Breda on Thursday morning, Van Breda contended that it could not possibly represent his actual words as it was not written in “proper English”. Elaborated Van Breda: “I don’t speak like that and I don’t know anyone who does.”

C is for Concessions

The accused has not been afraid of conceding how outlandish his story sounds in places. Asked if it would not be strange that the alleged attackers arrived at his home completely unarmed and only helped themselves to weapons once there, Van Breda agreed: “Yes, it would.” Asked if he would then agree that the alleged attackers were in fact ill-prepared for their crimes, he responded: “It would seem so.”

D is for Desai

Judge Siraj Desai – once mooted as the ANC’s favoured pick for Public Protector – is presiding over the case. Only at one point this week did Judge Desai lose his cool. After Van Breda stated that he did not feel anger about the murder of his family until “many days later”, the judge questioned why he did not experience more anger on the night of the crimes. Van Breda’s lawyer Pieter Botha objected that this line of questioning was “not fair”, in response to which Judge Desai smacked him down with a heated: “I will decide what is fair!”

E is for Evidence

One of the reasons why Van Breda faces an uphill battle in persuading the court of his innocence is that there appears to be almost no physical evidence to support the idea that at least two attackers entered his home and murdered his family. State witnesses testified that no foreign DNA was found in the house at all, and neither was there any trace of anyone entering or exiting the home. Attempts by police to trace men matching the description given by Van Breda came to nothing.

F is for Fat

Van Breda acknowledged on the stand – further to evidence given to this effect by his sister’s former boyfriend – that one source of family conflict was his sister Marli’s weight, which he described as “a bit of a touchy subject”. Van Breda said that his father Martin’s approach to the subject was to tell Marli: “You’re getting a bit fat,” which the rest of the family considered “a bit heavy-handed”.

G is for Galloway

State prosecutor Susan Galloway has been grilling Van Breda this week, at points putting the “cross” into “cross-examination”. Sometimes Galloway did not trouble to hide her scepticism at Van Breda’s account of the night in question, making liberal use of the phrases “don’t you find it strange…” and “it is difficult to understand how…” Galloway has yet to truly go for the jugular, however, but one gets the sense that more trouble is in store for Van Breda next week.

H is for Happy Birthday

Van Breda turned 23 on Wednesday, though there was no mention of it in court. It’s safe to say he’s probably had better birthdays.

I is for Impediment (Speech)

One of the reasons why Van Breda’s defence team said they didn’t want his testimony to be broadcast live was that Van Breda suffered from a speech impediment, in the form of a bad stutter. Cue Van Breda taking the stand, however, and there was no stutter audible. Quizzed about this by Galloway, Van Breda said that he had received years of speech therapy and the main trace of it was his tendency to say “um” (which in fact he has said very seldom).

J is for Jealous

One of the theories doing the rounds behind the scenes is that Van Breda was deeply jealous of his brother Rudi, a star student who was on track to finish his Masters while Henri was set to suspend his studies in Physics for a gap year. None of the state witnesses gave any indication that this was the case, however, and the state prosecutor has thus far not shown any signs of pursuing this angle in questioning.

K is for Knife

A kitchen knife is the second weapon used in the attacks, with Van Breda claiming that one of the intruders used the knife to cut him on his forearm, chest and side. The state’s witnesses have suggested that the wounds were self-inflicted, pointing to the fact that they were made in parallel lines well clear of sensitive areas like the nipple. They were also restricted to Van Breda’s left side, and he is right-handed.

L is for Lager

The doctor who examined Van Breda after the murders said there was a smell of alcohol on his breath. Van Breda explained this week that this was because his aunt and uncle gave him a beer to steady his nerves before his medical examination. The same doctor also said that Van Breda’s mood was “confident” and “jovial”. Said Van Breda: “I completely disagree with that.”

M is for Malan

Sergeant Clinton Malan was in court on Thursday for some amateur dramatics, playing the part of an intruder so that Van Breda could demonstrate to the court how he allegedly struggled with the intruder for control of the weapons. Malan was selected for the part by the state on the basis that he is roughly the same height and weight as the man who Van Breda claims attacked him. The two have history: Van Breda claims that when he asked Malan for a lawyer after the murders, Malan replied: “Why? Are you guilty?”

N is for Nothing

Nothing is what Van Breda claims he was doing while the intruder murdered his father and brother. It is Van Breda’s testimony that he was standing in the corner of his shared bedroom too afraid to move while the attacks took place.

O is for Op’t Hof

The Van Bredas’ neighbour, Stephanie Op’t Hof, previously testified that she had heard loud male voices raised in argument on the night of the murders. On the stand, Van Breda reiterated his claim that she was mistaken, and what she heard instead was the soundtrack of Star Trek 2, the movie he watched with his father and brother that evening.

P is for Pirates

Van Breda appears to be a fan of pirates – the maritime buccaneers, not the soccer team. He told the court that just before the attacks, he was in bed watching a show called One Piece on his laptop. One Piece is a Japanese manga series about pirates. To quote Wikipedia, “The story follows the adventures of Monkey D. Luffy, a boy whose body gained the properties of rubber after unintentionally eating a Devil Fruit.”

Q is for

Gimme a break here.

R is for Race

The spectre of race was brought into the courtroom on Wednesday when Van Breda was grilled on how he knew his alleged attacker was black, when he had testified that he could not see any part of his face – due to a mask – except his eyes. Van Breda replied it was due to the “deep contrast” between the whites of the eyes and the colour of the skin framing the eyes. Asked if the intruder could have been coloured, Van Breda readily assented – saying that from his years in Australia he had become unaccustomed to using the term “coloured” as a racial category but intended “black” to cover both possibilities. Quizzed further if the attacker could perhaps have been a tanned white man, Van Breda admitted that this was possible too.

S is for Sasha

Sasha is the name of the Van Bredas’ dog, and we have got to know Sasha awfully well from Van Breda’s testimony. We have heard about Sasha’s medical condition – she suffered a “stroke-like event”, Van Breda says; her daily habits; and her lifestyle. Judge Desai got into the swing of things by suggesting that Sasha was a “comfortable middle-class dog” in her ways, a description with which Van Breda concurred. Sasha is significant because she apparently did not bark at the presence of intruders, despite the fact that the Van Bredas’ domestic worker testified that the dog barked every time she entered.

T is for Toilet

One of the few points where Van Breda seemed taken aback while his lawyer was leading him through questioning was when Pieter Botha asked him if he wiped himself after relieving his bowels in the toilet on the night of the murders. Van Breda replied abruptly that he did not – a fact verified by crime scene photos of the toilet bowl. This is not an irrelevant scatological detail: his lawyer was underlining it to make the point that it was while using the toilet that Van Breda claims he heard attacks begin on his brother, and rushed out in such a state that he did not bother to clean up.

U is for Unknown Black Man

An unknown black man wearing balaclava and gloves” is how Galloway summed up Van Breda’s account of his alleged attacker, suggesting this was a “very stereotyped description”. Galloway also suggested that the information Van Breda gave the police about the appearance of this man was so vague that “no one would be able to trace that attacker”. Van Breda replied: “I would agree, there’s not a lot to go on.” (See C.)

V is for Van Gogh

On Wednesday, Van Breda sported a particularly striking tie in court: bearing a print of Vincent Van Gogh’s painting ‘Starry Night’. Since it was his birthday, it may have been a gift.

W is for Wishes

Van Breda wishes a lot of things had happened differently that night. Asked by Judge Desai why he did not try to overpower the intruder attacking his family, he replied – not for the first time – “I wish I did”. The consistent explanation Van Breda has given as to why he did not in fact intervene was that he was too scared.

X is for Xhosa

It is the accused’s testimony that he heard more than one voice talking in “harsh tones” outside his bedroom, which is what leads him to claim that there was more than one intruder. He told the court that he could not make out individual words, but that they were “most likely” speaking Afrikaans – though he then added that they could also have been speaking English or “another language”. We’ll go ahead and assume he meant Xhosa.

Y is for ‘Your bullshit story’

Van Breda told the court that one of the first things he was told at the police station after the murders by an officer was: “I don’t believe a word of your bullshit story.” Judging by Galloway’s face at various points during the cross-examination, she may share the policeman’s sentiments.

Z is for Zika virus

If you listened to the widely shared recording of Van Breda calling emergency services after the murders and thought you heard him giggle, you might want to get yourself tested for hearing loss – a potential symptom of the Zika virus. Van Breda is adamant that he did not laugh in any way. Instead, he was saying “please”. DM

Photo: Triple murder accused Henri van Breda sits in the dock at the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town, South Africa, 26 April 2017. Breda is on trial accused of killing his parents and brother while severely injuring his sister and tampering with the crime scene at their home in Stellenbosch in 2015. If acquitted Breda stands to inherit part of his family’s 12 million British Pounds. EPA/NIC BOTHMA

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