Axe murder accused Henri van Breda returned to the Western Cape High Court on Monday, sporting a clean-shaven bandiet haircut.
In closing arguments, prosecutor Susan Galloway said the State had a “prima facie” case against the 23-year-old accused of a bloodbath that left his parents and older brother dead.
Galloway said the attacks on his parents, Martin and Teresa, and his siblings, Rudi and Marli, were inflicted with the intention to kill and the fact that Marli, who was 16 years old at the time, survived was “not indicative of a lesser attack, but rather a miracle”.
The murders took place at the family’s upmarket De Zalze Estate home in Stellenbosch on 27 January 2015.
Galloway argued that all the family members had similar wounds inflicted by the alleged murder weapon, but the accused only had “superficial injuries on his torso, left arm and back”.
She said both Teresa and Marli were found in close proximity to the room that brothers Rudi and Henri shared.
Rudi and father Martin were found in that bedroom and a knife, also used in the attack, was found partially hidden under Rudi’s bed.
Galloway said there was no evidence of forced entry, nor was there evidence of a “hit” on the family.
The two murder weapons were found on the scene, and according to evidence from the domestic worker, belonged to the family.
She said that the attack on Rudi had been the most violent and that he had suffered the most injuries, which fit in with police evidence that it was a “rage attack”.
BRUTAL ATTACK: Henri with his parents, brother and sister
The only two people who had no self-defence wounds were Henri himself and his father Martin. This, Galloway, said could be explained by evidence that the attack on the father was a “surprise” one, and that he had moved to protect his son Rudi.
Henri’s wounds, however, were superficial and
“self-inflicted”.
No visible valuables were taken from the scene and this “was not consistent with a house robbery or armed robbery”.
She said none of the victims made an attempt to hide or call for help, “that is because the attacker was known to them”.
No foreign DNA was found on the scene.
She said Van Breda gave a poor impression as a witness, spoke confidently and in a “superior manner” at times and gave a “well-rehearsed” version of his plea explanation.
“He at all times tried to reason his decision-making and demeanour during and after the attack. Even when he couldn’t remember something, he tried to justify his decisions.”
She described him as having “selective memory loss”, able to recall great detail in some instances, but in others nothing at all.
She also questioned his explanation of a loss of consciousness for the almost three-hour time lapse between the attacks and calling for emergency services.
“The accused’s explanation changed at the very end of the trial to epilepsy,” she says.