Yesterday, members of the public were asked to leave the gallery as gruesome footage of the Van Bredas’ battered bodies were shown in court.
Triple murder accused Henri van Breda took up an offer from Judge Siraj Desai to change seats to avoid watching the silent film.
The footage was shot inside 12 Goske Street at De Zalze in Stellenbosch before the bodies of the murdered family was removed on 27 January 2015.
Henri is accused of killing his parents Martin and Teresa, and older brother Rudi, and trying to murder his younger sister, Marli, who survived the attack.
Prosecutor Susan Galloway asked for video of the scene because “the defence seemed to imply there was tampering with the scene before the photographs were taken” she said.
She wanted it noted that the footage corresponded to the photographs.
The first blood in the larney house is spotted on the staircase. On the first floor, a bloody axe is seen, and red footprints.
Teresa, with feet hanging off the side of the staircase, lies in a pool of blood, dressed in a top and white panty.
In a bedroom, Rudi’s body lies on the floor in a pool of blood, while dad Martin is slumped across the mattress.
Also taking the stand was shoe print expert Danie van der Westhuizen who said if an intruder had broken in and killed the family, he seems not to have left any bloody footprints.
The expert, who sat in the witness stand with two pink rubbish bags filled with exhibits of shoes, said 36 of the 38 footprints he analysed corresponded to the shoes of personnel who visited the scene in the morning.
The other two were inconclusive as the quality was not good enough.
Van Breda claimed that after a fight with the intruder, the man had escaped.