Van Breda attacker went for Henri's jugular‚ lawyer tells forensic expert

Henri van Breda’s attacker went straight for his jugular‚ the triple axe murder accused’s lawyer told the High Court in Cape Town on Tuesday.

Piet Botha introduced the claim — which was not in Van Breda’s plea statement — while cross-examining clinical forensic expert Marianne Tiemensma. He said Van Breda was not obliged to put every single detail in the statement.

While Botha and Tiemensma went in circles about what the latter referred to as “neat and parallel cuts” on Van Breda’s body‚ Van Breda seemed like he was struggling to stay awake.

• 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. 

Dressed in a dark suit and wearing his customary aeroplane lapel pin‚ he kept his gaze on Tiemensma who began many of her answers with‚ “As I explained …” after registering exasperation at the repetitious line of questioning.

She asked‚ “Why would you allow someone to draw neat lines across your chest?” and said it was “very strange” there was no sign of defensive injuries when Van Breda was allegedly in a pushing-and-pulling scuffle with an intruder wielding a knife and an axe.

• 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.  

“My client says the attacker had actually gone straight for his jugular‚” said Botha in response.

He asked Tiemensma: “Are you suggesting this struggle could only have happened if my client stood dead still?” and questioned whether Van Breda “might not have been so pumped full of adrenalin that he did not feel pain and therefore did not try pull away [and therefore stood still]”.

• Why Henri van Breda's cuts must have been self-inflicted: Expert stands up to cross-examination“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?” 

She repeated that it was unlikely Van Breda would not have taken offensive or defensive actions under those circumstances‚ even if adrenalin was flowing.

Botha then put it to Tiemensma that Van Breda had held the attacker’s hand so firmly that he was able to flick superficial parallel lines as the tip of the knife just reached the skin.

But‚ said Tiemensma‚ “you could get parallel cuts like that but not of this uniform nature”.

She said Van Breda was 93kg at the time‚ and that the attacker‚ allegedly an adult male‚ would not have been very light — meaning that the two of them standing dead still in a scuffle would be hard to imagine.

She also pointed out that Van Breda used the word “slash” and not “flick” in his plea statement.

Botha then demonstrated how it might have happened after the knife was brought to him.

Tiemensma said it was a very different scenario when there was no resistance.