MURDER ACCUSED VAN BREDA WISHES HE HAD DONE MORE TO SAVE FAMILY

CAPE TOWN - Triple murder accused Henri van Breda has told the court he wishes that he had done more to save his family from an axe-wielding killer.

Testifying in his trial this week, Van Breda was also made to demonstrate how an intruder attacked his relatives with an axe.

He says he also couldn’t bring himself to help his family.

“If I have been thinking clearly I probably would have done these things. If I hadn’t been so scared.”

Van Breda is on trial for the murder his parents and older brother and for seriously injuring his sister in an attack at their Stellenbosch home in 2015.

During cross examination on Wednesday, prosecutor Susan Galloway questioned why the intruder would enter the house unarmed.

“It would be strange had a person planned to enter your house and attack the family that they come armed inadequately or unarmed. So they were, in actual fact, ill-prepared for the attack.”

A few months ago, Van Breda's lawyer Advocate Matthys Combrink argued that the axe found on the crime scene might have been one of two used in the attacks.

Prosecutor Susan Galloway asked Van Breda what he thinks about the possibility of a second axe.

“I don’t know. But I only saw one of them. I only saw one of the attackers and he was holding the one axe.”

Van Breda said it’s likely that the other attacker, who he only heard in the house, could have had a second axe.

But Galloway pressed harder.

“Did you ever see another axe other than exhibit 111C (the axe)?”

Van Breda responded: “No”

Van Breda claims the attacker must have come to the house unarmed, and taken a knife from one of the kitchen drawers, and the axe from the pantry where it had been kept.