Van Breda's legal team pushes to have his statement ruled inadmissible

Over two years ago‚ triple axe murder accused Henri van Breda gave a statement to the police after his family had been axed to death.

Now his defence counsel want the statement to be deemed “inadmissible” in court.

In his plea statement‚ Van Breda claimed that doctors had said they would “see what they could do” to have his wounds declared self-inflicted.

He also claimed he had been badgered by Colonel Deon Beneke‚ who told him he “didn’t believe a word of [his] bullshit story”‚ and that he had not been told he had the right to legal representation or the right to remain silent.

• Forensic expert stands firm in court row over Van Breda's 'self-inflicted' woundsDid Henri van Breda lose consciousness and lie bleeding on the stairwell after his family was killed? 

Wednesday‚ day 17 of the trial‚ proceedings were stopped in their tracks before anyone had testified as Susan Galloway‚ for the state‚ told Judge Siraj Desai that she not happy with defence attorney Piet Botha’s objection.

She said: “The defence contested the admissibility of the report late [Tuesday] night - the essence of which is already before the court. The state therefore does not understand what the objection is.”

Botha argued that expert witness‚ Dr Jacob Johannes Dempers‚ who was supposed to begin testifying at 10am‚ “makes extensive reference [in his report] to what my client gave to the police by way of a statement on the 27th of January 2015”.

• Van Breda murder trial – what we know so farOn the morning of January 27‚ 2015‚ news broke of a gruesome triple axe murder at one of the country’s most opulent security estates near Stellenbosch in the Western Cape.  

Dempers is a forensic pathologist‚ who prepared a report on Van Breda's injuries.

Botha said Dempers’s report “also contains other inadmissible hearsay evidence” and character judgements.

He said that up until Tuesday‚ he and Galloway had attempted to reach a compromise between them whereby Dempers’s testimony could go ahead without there having to be a trial within a trial.

He added: “If there is no reference to the content of his [Henri’s] statement‚ then it is okay because a large part of the state’s case is premised on a statement made when he was not aware of his rights.”

• Emergency doctor testifies Van Breda’s wounds were ‘superficial’An emergency doctor has confirmed what was heard in the High Court in Cape Town last week: triple axe murder Henri van Breda's wounds were "superficial" and did not require stitches‚ and he had no signs of a concussion. 

Desai asked Galloway: “Can't you remove the hearsay and character references?”

Galloway said that they had already done that but now needed time to remove “parts of the accused’s statement”.

Desai adjourned court until 11.30am so that this could happen.