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Courtroom veterans to face off in Van Breda trial

Cape Town - Two seasoned advocates will on Monday face off in the Western Cape High Court when Henri van Breda goes on trial for the triple murder of his parents and brother and the attempted murder of his sister.

The 22-year-old is accused of attacking his family with an axe in the early hours of Tuesday January 27, 2015, killing his father Martin, mother Teresa, and older brother Rudi. His younger sister Marli was seriously injured.

Meet the teams who will make their case before Judge Siraj Desai.

State

Susan Galloway is a seasoned State advocate with 25 years’ experience.

Her high-profile cases have included the conviction of taxi driver Jacob Humphreys. He was sentenced to 20 years behind bars for killing 10 children when a train struck his minibus at the Buttskop level crossing, Blackheath, in 2010.

The Supreme Court of Appeal later reduced the conviction to culpable homicide and he received a sentence of in effect eight years.

Megan Blows has 14 years’ experience as a State advocate.

In 2003, she helped ensure the conviction of Alberto Saunders on two counts of attempted murder. He was sentenced to five years in jail for attacking two people with a baseball bat in a fit of road rage in 2002.



Pieter Botha and Henri van Breda (File, Jaco Marais, Netwerk24)

Defence

Pieter Botha has been an advocate for 29 years.

He is best known for helping advocate Francois van Zyl defend British businessman Shrien Dewani, who was accused of killing his wife Anni while they were on honeymoon in Cape Town in 2010.

Botha’s booming voice and line of questioning during cross-examination were hard for some State experts to ignore. In 2014, Dewani was discharged on a count of murder by the Western Cape High Court.



Lorinda van Niekerk and Henri van Breda (File, Jaco Marais, Netwerk24)

Lawyer Lorinda van Niekerk is a director at Cluver Markotter in Stellenbosch.

She made the news in September, when a copy of a police docket on the Van Breda family murders was stolen from her car in Green Point, shortly before Henri was to make a pre-trial appearance in the Western Cape High Court.

She told News24 that a laptop and the two bags were stolen out of her car's boot. The thieves left behind her cellphone and wallet.

 

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