Cape Town – Triple murder-accused Henri van Breda's defence grilled Sergeant Clinton Malan as more details about the sequence of events around his initial statement were heard in the Western Cape High Court on Monday.
In a trial within a trial, the admissibility of Henri's initial statement was called into question, tackling Malan, who was the officer who had initially taken the statement.
Henri’s defence lawyer Pieter Botha argued that the accused was treated like a suspect, and not a witness at the time that his statement was taken.
According to Henri he was dressed in only sleep shorts as he was driven from the crime scene to Dr Georgina Albertse who conducted his medical exam, and to the police station. Malan however said he remembers Henri wearing a short sleeve t-shirt while at Albertse’s office.
Malan was also asked about his whereabouts after taking Henri to the station, because it had been revealed that he had left the station twice while Henri was there. Malan had documented his whereabouts in his pocket book which revealed that he had gone to Blue Downs twice.
Botha grilled him on this saying he had created the impression he was present the whole time.
"I wasn't present whole time," Malan said.
Judge Siraj Desai then asked if his records had reminded him that he left the office and went to Blue Downs, to which Malan said that it did. Botha also highlighted how one entry in his notebook showed that he returned to the crime scene, but Malan says it was an error.
Botha grilled the language and spelling errors in the initial statement saying that Malan had incorrectly recorded what his client had said, bringing up all the “mistakes” such as using “was” instead of “were”, saying Henri Van Breda would not have used the incorrect tense because he was proficient in English.
Malan however said that he took down the statement exactly as Henri had told it to him.
Botha said when his client went through the statement, he noticed errors but he decided to sign it anyway as he wanted to get out of the station as soon as possible.
Botha also questioned why Henri's blood was drawn to test for drugs or alcohol asking Malan if it was strange for witnesses to be tested. Malan said it would be strange.
Henri's uncle Andre du Toit would be called to give evidence in the Western Cape High Court on Tuesday.
Henri has been charged with the murder of his parents and brother, and the attempted murder of his sister.