Marli van Breda won't testify in brother's trial
16 August 2017
Cape Town - Marli van Breda will not testify for the State in the triple murder trial of her brother.
The prosecution is expected to next week wrap up their case against the 22-year-old middle child of Martin and Teresa van Breda, accused of killing his parents and brother and attempting to murder his teenage sister two years ago.
Although the now 18-year-old was included on its witness list, she will not testify as she has not regained her memory. She has not yet been seen attending the trial.
The State's final witness, blood spatter analyst Captain Marius Joubert, will take to the stand on Monday.
He was expected to testify earlier this week, but informed the court that he had taken ill.
Marli was 16 at the time of the attack. She sustained severe head wounds and a severed jugular. After being hospitalised for six weeks, she was treated at a rehabilitation centre.
She has retrograde amnesia and cannot recall anything about the attack.
She and Henri saw each other again six months after the murders.
Following his arrest last June, her legal representative and curator Louise Buikman said the news had been "very distressing" to Marli.
The Western Cape High Court ruled that although she is legally an adult, Buikman would continue to oversee matters concerning her.
She may not be photographed or recorded, Judge Siraj Desai has warned the media.
Van Breda, 22, pleaded not guilty to axing his parents and brother to death, seriously injuring Marli and defeating the ends of justice.
He alleged that an intruder wearing a balaclava, gloves and dark clothes was behind the attack, and that he had heard other voices of people speaking Afrikaans in their home in the De Zalze Estate in Stellenbosch in January 2015.
Van Breda claimed that, after a fight with the axe-wielding intruder who was also armed with a knife, the man had escaped.
