Henri van Breda found guilty

Henri Van Breda was on Monday found guilty of the murder of his father, brother and mother and the attempted murder of his sister.  

The culmination of a lengthy trial - following the killing of van Breda's mother Teresa‚ father Martin‚ and brother Rudi with an axe - attracted a full gallery of court watchers and law experts.

Van Breda stood expressionless as judgement was handed down. He was also found guilty of defeating the ends of justice.

Van Breda's brother‚ Rudi‚ and father‚ Martin‚ were found hacked to death in an upstairs room of their luxury estate home in Stellenbosch on January 27 2015. His mother‚ Teresa‚ and sister‚ Marli‚ were found "nearby in the doorway" close to the same room.

Marli survived the attack.

Public interest was originally peaked by a family being slain within a well-guarded suburban complex.

Absent throughout the trial has been his teenage sister Marli‚ who suffered a severed jugular and serious head injuries.

Marli's lawyers stated she has retrograde amnesia from the attack.

She has been placed under custodianship by her lawyers.

Henri pleaded not guilty to all of the charges‚ including defeating the ends of justice.

The judgment‚ read out by Judge Siraj Desai‚ came in a packed Courtroom 1 at the High Court in Cape Town. From beginning to end‚ with the odd exception‚ it was a damning report for both Van Breda and the case as presented by his defence.

Desai mapped out a judgement that left no room for doubt.

He said it was "highly unlikely" than an intruder could have breached the perimeter of the luxury De Zalze estate‚ and also questioned the the wounds on Van Breda’s body‚ which were deemed "self-inflicted" by two "highly professional" and credible expert witnesses. He also made reference to an aggressive fight heard by a neighbour on the night of the attacks‚ and to Van Breda's emotionless state in court "even as he described the fatal blows to his parents and brother”.

Van Breda stood trial for a total of 66 days in what was one of the most sensational murder trials the country has seen.

In his judgment on Monday‚ Desai said it would be odd for an intruder to try wipe out an entire family and "leave one member" with so little harm.

He said Van Breda had neither try to help or console his family members‚ and displayed "a peculiar lack of empathy" and instead phoned his teenage girlfriend.

He said there was "no credible evidence that an intruder entered the estate” on the night of the incident and that‚ with regard to other aspects of the case‚ there was "no reason to reject the evidence of the state witnesses".

Even if he "had a seizure" that night‚ that was after the murders and thus has no bearing on the case‚ said Desai.

Desaia added that Van Breda would have had ample time to tamper with evidence.

Each piece of evidence "on its own" might not have been enough to convict Van Breda‚ said Desai‚ but "cumulatively" there was only one reasonable inference that can be drawn from all the evidence and testimonies: and that is that Henri van Breda was guilty.
​
The judgment came more than three years after news of the the brutal attacks rocked the country.

On January 27 2015‚ Van Bread placed a call to emergency services. On their arrival‚ they found a scene that would have been more at home in a horror film than in real life: his parents Martin and Teresa van Breda had been savagely attacked with an axe and had bled out on the first floor of the luxury home. His brother‚ Rudi‚ also lay lifeless on the floor‚ with major head injuries clearly inflicted with an axe.

Still alive‚ but barely clinging to life‚ was his sister Marli who was rushed off in an ambulance.

Soon‚ the news of the triple murder spread across the estate. It then spread like wildfire across the concentric circles of their family‚ the Stellenbosch community‚ and the entire country - also sending shock waves as far afield as Australia where the family had lived for several years‚ and the United Kingdom where close family friends began following the news of what had happened.

Rumours began to proliferate about the “problematic middle child” of the well-to-do Van Breda family‚ and the utter shock of such a tightly-guarded security estate seeing such a gruesome attack.

It took around eighteen months for an arrest to be made‚ and with it began a rollercoaster ride of DNA experts‚ policemen‚ forensic pathologists‚ domestic workers‚ neighbours‚ and scores of other witnesses - including Van Breda himself.