Mystic Mock
25-05-2017, 05:05 PM
Son on trial accused of murdering his millionaire parents and brother with an axe hides on stairs leading to the dock to avoid hearing gruesome details of the victims' horrific head injuries
The gruesome details of the Van Breda murders were revealed in court
A pathologist shared her findings after examining the bodies of the family
She said Rudi, 22, took two hours and 40 minutes to die from 'chop wounds'
Van Breda shirked away and hid as the graphic details were shared in Cape Town
Horrific details about the night a wealthy South African family were butchered in their bedrooms were laid bare in court on Thursday, including how a schoolgirl fought desperately for her life and the slow, agonising death of her brother.
Henri Van Breda, who is on trial for the axe murder of three members of his family and attempting to murder his sister, looked anguished as he sat through an account of their last hours of terror and suffering from the pathologist who examined their bodies.
Dr Daphne Anthony told the high court in Cape Town how Marli Van Breda, then 16, had fought back harder than any of her loved ones during the early-hours attack in January 2015.
She suffered multiple defensive wounds in 'a severe and significant struggle' in addition to axe blows to her head and a slashed jugular vein, but somehow survived her ordeal.
Van Breda allegedly wielded a nine lbs (four kilos) axe first and with more blows against his older brother Rudi, who took two hours and 40 minutes to die a lingering, painful death from multiple 'chop wounds' to his skull and neck, the pathologist reported.
Twenty-two year-old Van Breda denies attacking his loved ones with an axe at their home on an exclusive security estate following a blazing family row.
He claims a masked mystery intruder broke in and murdered them in their bedrooms as he watched helpless through a crack in the bathroom door.
As the pathologist picked her way through three post mortem reports and an album of pictures from the crime scene and mortuary, which the judge ruled too graphic for publication, Van Breda sat as far from the witness as he could.
At one point, he even ducked out of sight on the stairs leading from the dock to the holding cells, to spare himself the gruesome details.
Dr Anthony told prosecutor Susan Galloway that the killer would have wielded the murder weapon 'with a tremendous amount of force and a high rate of speed' to inflict the level of injuries she had examined on the Van Bredas' corpses.
Postgraduate student Rudi was attacked as he lay in his single bed, the court heard, and suffered two heavy blows to his head, before he had time to raise his hands in defence.
The axe was brought down so hard that his skull was smashed and brain tissue could be seen with the naked eye, the pathologist said.
Martin Van Breda, 54, 'was most likely surprised and not aware' that his killer was coming for him, the trial heard, and was whacked 'with large force' four times from behind with the axe, including to the back of his neck.
The father-of-three was cut down in his sons' room, and also took some time to die. He may have been conscious enough to hear the gurgling and thrashing of his son, Rudi, who was fighting for life nearby.
It was the defence's own pathologist who estimated it took Rudi two hours and 40 minutes to die, the court heard.
Asked by Judge Siraj Desai if the 22 year-old would have suffered as he succumbed to his injuries, the pathologist replied, 'yes, he would have suffered, it would have been very painful'.
During his own statement to the court, Van Breda recalled hearing his older brother's last sounds and movements, but claimed he had not known the right number to phone for help, and then had passed out himself before he could raise the alarm.
According to the young accused, who stands to inherit a share of his parents' vast wealth if he is cleared of their murders, he fell unconscious from a blow to his head after falling as he chased the fleeing masked killer.
Like her daughter, Teresa Van Breda, 55, had also put up a fight for her life, the pathologist reported, and had defensive wounds to her hands as she helplessly shielded her head from the blade of her killer's axe.
Mrs Van Breda was wearing a dark blue singlet and beige coloured underwear when she was found face down on the landing, next to her dying daughter.
The keen cook had been face to face with her attacker as he chopped at her head with such force that, like her husband, her brain tissue was left exposed by the force of the axe, the pathologist told the prosecutor.
'While the wound to the top of her head was inflicted she was likely raising her hand to ward off the attack,' Dr Anthony said.
Despite his dramatic account of single-handedly disarming a dangerous axeman who lunged at him with a knife, a number of the state's expert witnesses have denounced Van Breda's own injuries as 'superficial', 'self-inflicted', and inconsistent with the life-and-death struggle he described.
On Thursday, his lawyer Pieter Botha also mounted a challenge to the inclusion as evidence of a statement his young client made to police on the day after the mass murders. It is thought the account he gave to officers at that time is now at odds with his more recent explanation of events.
Marli, now 18, is listed to give evidence for the prosecution at the trial, which is expected to last another two months.
Van Breda denies three counts of murder, one of attempted murder and one of perverting the course of justice.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4542036/Gruesome-details-Van-Breda-family-murders-revealed.html
The gruesome details of the Van Breda murders were revealed in court
A pathologist shared her findings after examining the bodies of the family
She said Rudi, 22, took two hours and 40 minutes to die from 'chop wounds'
Van Breda shirked away and hid as the graphic details were shared in Cape Town
Horrific details about the night a wealthy South African family were butchered in their bedrooms were laid bare in court on Thursday, including how a schoolgirl fought desperately for her life and the slow, agonising death of her brother.
Henri Van Breda, who is on trial for the axe murder of three members of his family and attempting to murder his sister, looked anguished as he sat through an account of their last hours of terror and suffering from the pathologist who examined their bodies.
Dr Daphne Anthony told the high court in Cape Town how Marli Van Breda, then 16, had fought back harder than any of her loved ones during the early-hours attack in January 2015.
She suffered multiple defensive wounds in 'a severe and significant struggle' in addition to axe blows to her head and a slashed jugular vein, but somehow survived her ordeal.
Van Breda allegedly wielded a nine lbs (four kilos) axe first and with more blows against his older brother Rudi, who took two hours and 40 minutes to die a lingering, painful death from multiple 'chop wounds' to his skull and neck, the pathologist reported.
Twenty-two year-old Van Breda denies attacking his loved ones with an axe at their home on an exclusive security estate following a blazing family row.
He claims a masked mystery intruder broke in and murdered them in their bedrooms as he watched helpless through a crack in the bathroom door.
As the pathologist picked her way through three post mortem reports and an album of pictures from the crime scene and mortuary, which the judge ruled too graphic for publication, Van Breda sat as far from the witness as he could.
At one point, he even ducked out of sight on the stairs leading from the dock to the holding cells, to spare himself the gruesome details.
Dr Anthony told prosecutor Susan Galloway that the killer would have wielded the murder weapon 'with a tremendous amount of force and a high rate of speed' to inflict the level of injuries she had examined on the Van Bredas' corpses.
Postgraduate student Rudi was attacked as he lay in his single bed, the court heard, and suffered two heavy blows to his head, before he had time to raise his hands in defence.
The axe was brought down so hard that his skull was smashed and brain tissue could be seen with the naked eye, the pathologist said.
Martin Van Breda, 54, 'was most likely surprised and not aware' that his killer was coming for him, the trial heard, and was whacked 'with large force' four times from behind with the axe, including to the back of his neck.
The father-of-three was cut down in his sons' room, and also took some time to die. He may have been conscious enough to hear the gurgling and thrashing of his son, Rudi, who was fighting for life nearby.
It was the defence's own pathologist who estimated it took Rudi two hours and 40 minutes to die, the court heard.
Asked by Judge Siraj Desai if the 22 year-old would have suffered as he succumbed to his injuries, the pathologist replied, 'yes, he would have suffered, it would have been very painful'.
During his own statement to the court, Van Breda recalled hearing his older brother's last sounds and movements, but claimed he had not known the right number to phone for help, and then had passed out himself before he could raise the alarm.
According to the young accused, who stands to inherit a share of his parents' vast wealth if he is cleared of their murders, he fell unconscious from a blow to his head after falling as he chased the fleeing masked killer.
Like her daughter, Teresa Van Breda, 55, had also put up a fight for her life, the pathologist reported, and had defensive wounds to her hands as she helplessly shielded her head from the blade of her killer's axe.
Mrs Van Breda was wearing a dark blue singlet and beige coloured underwear when she was found face down on the landing, next to her dying daughter.
The keen cook had been face to face with her attacker as he chopped at her head with such force that, like her husband, her brain tissue was left exposed by the force of the axe, the pathologist told the prosecutor.
'While the wound to the top of her head was inflicted she was likely raising her hand to ward off the attack,' Dr Anthony said.
Despite his dramatic account of single-handedly disarming a dangerous axeman who lunged at him with a knife, a number of the state's expert witnesses have denounced Van Breda's own injuries as 'superficial', 'self-inflicted', and inconsistent with the life-and-death struggle he described.
On Thursday, his lawyer Pieter Botha also mounted a challenge to the inclusion as evidence of a statement his young client made to police on the day after the mass murders. It is thought the account he gave to officers at that time is now at odds with his more recent explanation of events.
Marli, now 18, is listed to give evidence for the prosecution at the trial, which is expected to last another two months.
Van Breda denies three counts of murder, one of attempted murder and one of perverting the course of justice.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4542036/Gruesome-details-Van-Breda-family-murders-revealed.html