Cape Town – When Henri Van Breda phoned for an ambulance, he sounded a bit hesitant according to the operator who picked up his emergency call.
“I heard what sounded to me like a giggle, and my initial thought was that it was a prank call,” Janine Philander told the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.
Philander, who had started working for social development in 2010, was working at the City of Cape Town’s Emergency Communication Centre when she received a call from triple murder accused Henri Van Breda.
The Emergency Communication Centre take calls for police, fire and ambulance said Philander. She said that she was on duty on the morning when she received his call at 7.12am on January 27, 2015.
While being questioned by Megan Blows, for the State, Philander revealed that the call with Henri was “one of the weirdest ever for me”.
She said that typically when people call, they are frantic, shouting, crying and quite confused, but categorised Henri as quiet and calm, and very co-operative. When asked why she thought the call was a prank, Philander said “it was the way he sounded”.
She said callers normally say "get the people out here now" or "people are dying, get them out now” but he was cool and calm.
Philander said usually, calls to their services are quite short, as people would not hold on the line, but the call with Henri lasted approximately 20 to 30 minutes.
Philander added that while Henri couldn’t exactly recall his street name, he was able to give an nearby alternative for the ambulance to find.
The audio clips of the actual emergency call were not played in court over concerns about the quality of the sound. Judge Siraj Desai said the court would hear the recordings when more audible copies were available.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Van Bredas's neighbour, Stephanie Op’t Hof, gave evidence that she had heard "manly, aggressive voices" coming from the Van Breda house.
Op’t Hof works as an interior designer and had been working on her laptop after putting her two sons to bed. It was between 10pm and 11:50pm that she heard raised voices.
Defense lawyer Matthys Combrink cross-examined her, stating that according to Henri the family had recently bought a new stereo system, and along with it came a Star Trek movie he and his family watched that night.
Combrink questioned whether or not she had mistaken the voices for the sounds coming from the TV.
Op't Hof said she did not heard any other sound effects of a "Star Trek or a Star Wars" but that she heard aggressive voices coming from the direction of the Van Breda residence.
She said what she had heard sounded nothing like a film.
Henri #vanbreda leaving court on Day 12. Court adjourned until 10am tomorrow. @IOL @TheCapeArgus pic.twitter.com/xlVG4v5Ff6
— Mr Idiosyncratic (@thelionmutters) May 16, 2017
The Van Breda trial continues on Wednesday.
Henri has been charged with the murder of his parents and brother, and the attempted murder of his sister.