Axe killing suspect's lawyer also got Shrien Dewani off the hook

A 21-year-old suspect arrested a day ago in connection with the triple axe murder of the Van Breda family has arrived at court in Stellenbosch on Tuesday with his lawyer‚ advocate Pieter Botha.

Botha was the junior in the Shrien Dewani trial‚ which saw the British businessman acquitted on a charge of wanting to kill his bride Anni on her honeymoon while in Cape Town.

Martin and Teresa van Breda as well as their eldest son‚ Rudi‚ 22‚ were killed in a brutal axe attack at their upmarket home at De Zalze Golf Estate in Stellenbosch in January 2015.

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Two surviving children‚ Henri and Marli‚ are in line to inherit an estate estimated at about R200-million‚ according to a Sunday Times report in March 2015.

Martin van Breda was a successful businessman‚ who set up businesses at home and later in Australia before returning to South Africa six months before the murder.

In the wake of the murder‚ legal experts were appointed to assist the family and siblings.

Advocate Martin Coetzee was appointed to represent Marli‚ who was gravely injured and left for dead during the brutal attack. She suffered blows to the head and face and her attacker had tried to sever her jugular vein.

She is a key witness to the murders but is believed to be suffering from a form of amnesia. Marli also has a curator to help her.

Botha was appointed to represent her brother Henri‚ who was in the house during the murders and claimed that an axe-wielding intruder attacked him and his family. He was the one who summoned emergency services to the property.

If Advocate Botha follows a similar approach in the Van Breda trial‚ he may bring in expert witnesses and employ high-tech aids.

During the Dewani trial‚ Botha and senior counsel Francois van Zyl worked to secure an acquittal by‚ amongst other things:

- Using a program called Timeline Maker to draw up timelines‚ including cellphone conversations‚ that contradicted state witnesses’ versions.

 - Contracting an independent ballistics expert to conduct tests on a vehicle like the one in which Anni’s body was found‚ to establish who had shot her.

- Sending a team to prison to measure the gunman’s arms with the aim of disproving claims that her murder was an execution-style killing.

- Having someone translate and transcribe CCTV footage of conversations in Xhosa that another conspirator had on the telephone from the hotel at which he worked.

- Contracting an independent pathologist and IT experts to analyse claims that Dewani had been logged onto gay dating sites while on honeymoon and cellphone experts to analyse data from his phone.