Scars come back to haunt Van Breda

The faint scars on Henri van Breda’s body came back to haunt him in the high court in Cape Town on Tuesday – as did the moment he went downstairs to arm himself for a murderous attack on his family.

Van Breda applied for leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence and, although Judge Siraj Desai said that “out of kindness” he would read the defence’s application before announcing his decision on Monday‚ his perspective was clear – the court had not misdirected itself and was unlikely to grant the application.

Van Breda‚ who is serving his life sentence at the Drakenstein prison in Paarl‚ was not in court‚ but his advocate Piet Botha argued he should be allowed to take the case to a higher authority.

Van Breda’s girlfriend‚ Danielle Janse van Rensburg‚ who has protested his innocence throughout‚ was in court.

Botha said the evidence against Van Breda was purely circumstantial and the state had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he had committed murder.

Botha took the court through aspects of the evidence and said the three life sentences were excessive.

But Desai told him: “Put simply‚ the evidence fits together like a mosaic – one rarely gets a case so strong.”

Van Breda’s self-inflicted wounds were a key part of that mosaic‚ he said.