Hair found at the murder scene in the Van Breda’s De Zalze Estate house came under sharp focus in the Western Cape High Court yesterday.
Murder accused Henri van Breda’s defence tore into forensic scientist Henry Stewart who took to the stand on day 11 of the triple murder trial.
Van Breda, sporting a new hair cut, is on trial for the 2015 murder of his father, Martin mother, Teresa, and brother, Rudi. He has also been charged with the attempted murder of his sister Marli.
It emerged that hair clutched in Marli’s hand resembled hair of her accused brother Henri, hair analyst Henry Stewart testified, although this was later challenged by defence advocate Pieter Botha.
Stewart initially told the court the only way the hair could have ended up in her hand would've been through force - by Marli gripping and pulling hair.
During cross-examination Botha put it to Stewart that the hair could have been transferred from a towel used to cover her bloody body, or the pillow used to rest her when paramedics arrived. Stewart conceded.
Soon after, the length of the hair in Marli’s hand was also disputed, with Botha confirming with Stewart that the length of the hair in Marli’s hand was about 200mm long.
Botha showed the court pictures of Henri just after the incident, and Stewart agreed that his hair was about 30mm long, at most.
Arguments continued, following Stewart's testimony that he did not find hairs other than what was presented to him - the hairs of the five family members.
But during cross-examination Botha referred to a sample in which hair was unaccounted for. Hair samples were taken from all five family members following the brutal attack in their multimillion rand home in January 2015.
After going back and forth on Botha’s question, Stewart eventually said he thought it was implied that there could be foreign hairs in the house.
Stewart also told the court that he did not know whose hair he was examining until he was subpoenaed to appear in court in March this year.
Botha then read a letter of instruction which was addressed to Stewart before he proceeded with his examination.
In that letter, which Botha read in court, he put it to Stewart that the names of the people were given to him, as well as that Henri was the suspect in the case.
Stewart said he forgot the names, as he wanted to be objective during his examinations. “I waited for all the evidence and by the time I started, I forgot the names.
"I wanted to stay objective,” Stewart said.
Henri is on trial for the murder of his mother, Teresa, 55, father Martin, 54, and brother Rudi, 22, who were hacked to death with an axe, while his sister, Marli, 16 at the time, survived a physical assault, and now suffers from retrograde amnesia.
Henri, 22, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of murder, one of attempted murder, and one of defeating the ends of justice.
The trail continues.