South Africa - Martin, 55, Theresa, 54, Rudi van Breda, 22, murdered, 26 Jan 2015 #2

[JudgeJudi]

Dr Anthony says Martin Van Breda was most likely not aware of the attack, with his injuries indicating no defence.

A recap of Henri's version of events:

The lights were then turned on and he saw his father enter the room while the attack on Rudi was taking place.“My dad immediately moved towards and onto the bed, over Rudi, towards the attacker, who was on the opposite side of the bed. It looked as if he was trying to tackle the attacker or at least get between the attacker and Rudi.

“However, my dad was struck with the axe as he lunged towards the attacker. His body went limp on the bed and I did not see him move again.”

The attacker nevertheless hit him a number of times with the axe, and Henri said he recalled the intruder “laughing whilst he attacked my dad”.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-van-breda-axe-murder-trial-day-18-20170525

 

[JudgeJudi]

Theresa was wearing beige underwear and navy vest.

Galloway asks if any individual wound be potentially fatal, if sustained alone.

Dr Anthony: Teresa's chop wound to the head could be fatal, also incised wound to the head. The others were all minor injuries.

Henri is sitting on the floor. Judge Desai asks where he is. His head peeps up from the dock.

Martin had 3 potentially fatal wounds. Each one could have killed him on their own.

Axe fits the instrument in terms of wounds sustained, Dr Anthony says.

Photo of Marli and her mother taken at scene is shown; as well as photos of Marli in hosptial.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-van-breda-axe-murder-trial-day-18-20170525

 

[PrimeSuspect]

https://twitter.com/AJGMolyneaux

Anthony Molyneaux‏ @AJGMolyneaux 10m @TimesLIVE

Back in court. Henri now sits on steps leading down to court holding cells. We can't see him from the press bench.
welcome back to court. Hope you're ready for the next session. Deep breaths.

Henri moved lower & lower down stairs toward holding cells. Judge asks for him to come back up incase he faints & no one sees.
Teresa's 1 chop wound to head could have been enough to be fatal.
Photos now being displayed to witness which were taken by 1st responder on scene.
We move to photos of Marli van Breda. DrA is asked if her injuries are similar to the other deceased family members. DrA says yes.

DrA says Marli's hand wounds are defensive & multiple & shows severe scuffling. She testifies there was a battle between her & attacker.
DrA looks at crime scene photos. Large pool of blood around 2 females at top of stairs. DrA says pool can develop quite quickly.

 

[JudgeJudi]

Marli's injuries to head and neck are consistent with injuries sustained by the three family members.

She says she did not know the details of Henri's plea explanation or his version of events.

Marli's injuries involving hands and extremities are indicative of evidence of self defensive wounds, multiple injuries, indicative of severe scuffling. This in comparison to Rudi's pinky wound and Teresa's thumb.

The deceased injuries are confined to head. And no other injuries involved.

With Marli, more severe injuries and specifically the location of the injuries more on the extremities and hands indicative of a more severe significant struggle going on during the attack.

Attempt to save her life, basically, Dr Anthony says.

Photo of scene show large pool of blood around Teresa and Marli.

Dr Anthony says scalp wounds bleed profusely.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-van-breda-axe-murder-trial-day-18-20170525

 

[Estelle]

Attacked from behind - with an axe no less. Sickening cowardice and even more harrowing if he was trying to shield his son. How dare HvB hang his head and carry on this way! Sounds like he had no trouble looking his Mum in the eye as he killed her. He should be made to watch the testimony. Playing the victim.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I am trying to imagine this.

Could it be that he attacked Rudi while he was asleep in the bed? Then Martin heard the attack and came to rescue Rudi. HvB hid behind the wall at entrance to bedroom and when Martin came in, attacked him from behind. The Terese came to see what was going on and HvB came out of his bedroom and attacked her before she got into Rudi and HvB's bedroom and the attack as so strong, that it made her fall down.

I wonder how long it took? Five minutes?

Where was Marli? How far is her bedroom away from theirs? Where was the balcony?

 

[PrimeSuspect]

https://twitter.com/AJGMolyneaux

Anthony Molyneaux‏ @AJGMolyneaux 4m @TimesLIVE

Galloway asks DrA who suffered the most violent attack.
DrA testifies that Rudi suffered the most violent attack, then Martin(father) & then Teresa(mother).

now we deal with sequence of events.

DrA says Rudi was most likely hit twice on head before trying to stop attack. Martin was completely unaware of attack from back.

Teresa faced attacker & was aware of axe because she raised her hand, causing defensive wound on R thumb.

 

[Interested Bystander]

Just arrived and catching up. This is so horrible. I am not surprised HvB is hiding on the floor in the dock. These murders of family are utterly horrendous and sickening.

Thank you everyone for the updates. You are doing a great job. Can I help in any way?

 

[JudgeJudi]

Galloway asks which of deceased suffered the most violent attack? Rudi, Dr Anthony says, in terms of amount. Second is Martin. Then mother, with lesser injuries.

Desai asks: who was killed first?

Dr Anthony says wound examination means she can postulate the possible sequence of events.

She postulates that Rudi's injuries shows laying on right side of his face. Trauma to head means he was aware of what was coming.

He raised his hand in an attempt to ward off the attack, that's why incised wound on little finger with the lifting of the nail.

Other wounds following.

With Martin, his injuries sustained were to the back and head.

Impact more likely from the back No evidence of defensive wounds, most likely he was unaware and he was attacked form the back.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-van-breda-axe-murder-trial-day-18-20170525

 

[JudgeJudi]

With Teresa, she faced assailant and also aware of the infliction of the trauma, instinctively also raising her right hand, resulting wound on thumb.

She most likely fell forward on her face with abrasions on nose bridge and also more to the left side where she sustained contusions.

Marli, in terms of pictures and extensive evidence of defensive wounds, I postulated that she was in a more severe altercation with the attacker.

Type of injuries to the head similar to the type of injuries to 3 members of the family. Chop wounds and incised wounds. Measurements more or less the same.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-van-breda-axe-murder-trial-day-18-20170525

 

[PrimeSuspect]

Just arrived and catching up. This is so horrible. I am not surprised HvB is hiding on the floor in the dock. These murders of family are utterly horrendous and sickening.

Thank you everyone for the updates. You are doing a great job. Can I help in any way?

It is shocking IB!

I'm off in about 10 mins, if you wouldn't mind doing some tweets, I alternate between Tracey and Anthony.

 

[PrimeSuspect]

I am trying to imagine this.

Could it be that he attacked Rudi while he was asleep in the bed? Then Martin heard the attack and came to rescue Rudi. HvB hid behind the wall at entrance to bedroom and when Martin came in, attacked him from behind. The Terese came to see what was going on and HvB came out of his bedroom and attacked her before she got into Rudi and HvB's bedroom and the attack as so strong, that it made her fall down.

I wonder how long it took? Five minutes?

Where was Marli? How far is her bedroom away from theirs? Where was the balcony?

It seems like, HvB attacked Rudi while he slept, Rudi cried out and while he was thrashing across the bed (as per HvB description) as you say, HvB hid behind the door. Martin turns on light and sees to Rudi, HvB attacks Martin from behind.
There must have been words spoken/yelled that alerted Theresa that there could be a continuation of the argument the men had a few hours earlier. She was killed on the landing near the bedroom door, and Marli was found beside her. She may have come at the same time as her mother?

 

[JudgeJudi]

Galloway asks how Marli survived the attack.

The issue of survival period after trauma depends on various factors; age - younger will survive longer- and amount of blood loss. Severity of the wounds.

Galloway asks if Dr Anthony is familiar with terms cold blooded, emotional, passionate, overkill? She says she is.

Adv Botha objects, says it calls for speculation.

Desai asks if Rudi was assaulted on the bed, why he is lying near doorway of bathroom.

Dr Anthony says possible after attack, you may still be able to lift yourself and not immediately immobile or unconscious.

Still possible you can slouch and move, depending on level of consciousness or survivial period.

Alternatively, if attacked in bed, he could have been moved.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-van-breda-axe-murder-trial-day-18-20170525

 

[JudgeJudi]

[Botha is cross-examining]

Botha says he understands she was given copy of report compiled by their expert, Dr Reggie Perumal. She says yes, she went through it this morning.

Dr Perumal summarises what he was asked to comment on. He also deals with Rudi's post-mortem report. He summarises her findings. He also had scene photos. She says she has also seen them.

Botha asks about pool of blood on bed where Martin was found. DNA shows it's Rudi's blood. On the floor, blood also shows its Rudi's.

Two smear patterns between bedroom and bathroom, also Rudi's blood.

Perumal's report being examined.

Anthony says she differs with Perumal that she concluded a generic manner as the cause of death. She says head injury entails all structures that head consists of - scalp, skull and brain.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-van-breda-axe-murder-trial-day-18-20170525

 

[Interested Bystander]

It is shocking IB!

I'm off in about 10 mins, if you wouldn't mind doing some tweets, I alternate between Tracey and Anthony.

OK I will see what I can do.


This is so gruesome. Why doesn't HvB plead guilty and get it over and done with?

 

[JudgeJudi]

He phrased it as incised wounds of the skull, and incised fractures of the scalp.

She agrees, but skull fractures are not a cause of death, it causes injury to the brain. Consequences result in death.

Can you dispute what Dr Perumal says, that it took 2hr40m for Rudi to die?

Dr Anthony: I am not at liberty to absolutely dispute.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-van-breda-axe-murder-trial-day-18-20170525

 

[JudgeJudi]

Court adjourns for lunch.

http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/live-van-breda-axe-murder-trial-day-18-20170525

 

[Estelle]

IB, you need to include the links for twitter on each post. The Mod reminded us yesterday. I had not done it nor had Prime earlier. I have a headache tonight which will not go away so will go to bed early. Therefore i cannot help you post tweets.

 

[Estelle]

This is interesting.

So Henri was just waiting for Rudi to die since Botha said previously that he had fainted for 2 hours 40 minutes before calling for an ambulance?

 

[Interested Bystander]

I hope I have caught up with the tweets. Will try to do better this afternoon.

 

[Interested Bystander]

IB, you need to include the links for twitter on each post. The Mod reminded us yesterday. I had not done it nor had Prime earlier. I have a headache tonight which will not go away so will go to bed early. Therefore i cannot help you post tweets.

OK, I hadn't realised. Do I have to include the link for every tweet or just once for the page of tweets?