Forensic expert stands firm in court row over Van Breda's 'self-inflicted' wounds

Did Henri van Breda lose consciousness and lie bleeding on the stairwell after his family was killed?

Or did he give himself superficial wounds that hardly bled?

It depends who you ask about the events following the murders of Martin‚ Teresa and Rudi van Breda on the night of January 26‚ 2015.

According to his defence counsel‚ Piet Botha‚ when Van Breda “regained consciousness‚ on the morning of the 27th‚ he was on the stairs in this vicinity and he then noticed a stain on the side of the stairs”.

“Could it have come from his own wound?” Botha asked clinical forensic expert Dr Marianne Tiemensma in the High Court in Cape Town yesterday.

• Van Breda 'may have injured himself'Henri van Breda's defence counsel accused the prosecution of an "ambush" yesterday over a pathologist's evidence that cuts on the axe murder accused's body were likely to have been self-inflicted.

She replied: “It depends on the position of his body. Without DNA‚ one could not say.”

Botha asked: “When he tried to get hold of emergency services‚ his spelling was garbled. Would that be indicative of a concussive state?”

Tiemensma said: “No‚ he wasn’t so confused that he didn’t know what he was doing. There were no symptoms of a concussion.”

Botha also noted that his client’s pupils were “sluggish” in response to light and asked if this was a sign of concussion or unconsciousness.

• Van Breda’s defence counsel accuses prosecution of ‘ambush’Henri van Breda’s defence counsel accused the prosecution of an “ambush” on Thursday over a pathologist’s evidence that cuts on the axe murder accused’s body were likely to have been self-inflicted.

She said that it could also be indicative of “drug use or the use of another substance or medication”.

This conversation came after a day-long locking of horns during which Botha repeatedly tried to get Tiemensma to change her assertion of “self-inflicted” wounds.

During the morning session‚ Tiemensma said: “This is now a battle of life and death at that moment so why would the person inflict superficial wounds when they had the possibility of doing serious damage?”

Under cross-examination‚ she stuck with her finding of self-inflicted wounds which she included in reports at the time of the crime and which she detailed again when testifying for the state.

• Cuts on murder accused Henri van Breda likely ‘self-inflicted’‚ court hearsAn expert pathologist told a riveted court room on Thursday how the cuts on murder accused Henri van Breda's body were very likely "self-inflicted".

Last week‚ she explained that Van Breda's cuts and scratches were superficial‚ parallel‚ uniform and in reachable areas. They were also symmetrical‚ and showed there was no movement when they happened.

In other words‚ the wounds were simply too perfect to have happened in a life-and-death situation.

“What gave you the impression in the plea statement that there was movement?” asked Botha.

Reading directly from Van Breda’s witness statement‚ she said there was “pushing and pulling” as the two men “stepped back and forth”.

After a break‚ Botha returned to court saying the attacker actually went straight for the jugular.

This was not included in the plea statement but Botha said his client was not obliged to include every detail.