CAPE TOWN, November 6 (ANA) – Senior state prosecutor Susan Galloway told the Western Cape High Court on Monday that triple murder accused Henri van Breda had “selective memory loss more often than not when it comes to incriminating evidence”.
The 23-year-old faces three charges of murder, one of attempted murder as well as defeating the ends of justice for the axe attacks on his family at their home in the security estate De Zalze in January 2015.
He has pleaded not guilty to the attacks that left his parents, Martin and Teresa, as well as brother Rudi, dead. His sister, Marli, who was 16 years old at the time, survived the attack but sustained severe head injuries and has retrograde amnesia.
After several days of poking holes in Van Breda’s version that a balaclava-clad, axe-wielding laughing intruder was behind the attacks, Galloway wrapped up her cross-examination.
She highlighted the discrepancies in Van Breda’s initial police statement on January 27 and his plea explanation, saying he later added timelines, became “vague” when it suited him and tailored his evidence after having “ample time” to scrutinise the police docket.
Van Breda insisted that he was pushed by police officer Colonel Deon Beneke to “sound more sure” of things than he was and has consistently blamed the discrepancies in his statement on Beneke’s “misrepresentations” of his words.
He told the court he read and signed the statement, despite omissions and inaccuracies as he knew once he signed it he could go home
“If I had known the statement would be used in court, I would not have signed it. I did not understand the situation I was in.”
Galloway pointed out that in his plea explanation he said there were at least two attackers. It read: “I also recall hearing what sounded like angry voices of more than one person, somewhere else in the house. Although I could not distinguish specific words, it sounded like the persons were speaking Afrikaans”.
Yet, in his police statement, he made no mention of a second intruder. Van Breda insisted he had told police about the second attacker but hadn’t been able to give them much information.
He wasn’t sure why they left it out of the statement, he told the court. When pressed by Judge Siraj Desai about the importance of telling the police about a second intruder so they could pursue those responsible, Van Breda said he was “surprised” that the information was not there, but hadn’t noticed the omission at the time.
Galloway said he could give a very detailed description of his struggle with the attacker, and even direct the demonstration acted out in court last week, yet couldn’t remember details of certain events.
“It appears that some of the supplements and explanations you give are an attempt to explain certain information in the police docket,” Galloway put to van Breda.
But Van Breda denied this: “No, I say I can’t recall when I can’t recall.”
The case was adjourned until Tuesday when defence lawyer Piet Botha will proceed with the re-examination of his client.
– African News Agency (ANA)
