The girlfriend of a South African man who was jailed for killing his parents and brother in an axe attack has claimed her partner is innocent.
Former Perth schoolboy Henri van Breda received at least three life sentences last month for the 2015 murders, which he has denied committing.
In an interview to air on Sunday, his girlfriend Danielle Janse van Rensburg told Channel Nine's 60 Minutes that she believes Mr van Breda.
"He told me everything ... He was very open. He was very honest," Ms van Rensburg said.
Ms van Rensburg said she met Mr van Breda after the axe murders took place and found out what he was accused of online.
Henri van Breda in the High Court in Cape Town, South Africa. Source: AAP
"I found out through the internet. I saw an article, and then I saw him. I was like, 'Oh. That really does make sense because he does not talk a lot about his family," she said.
The 60 Minutes journalist asks: "Your very first reaction was not, 'Oh my God'?"
To which she responds, "I felt really heartbroken for him".
The program also spoke to Mr van Breda's aunt Leenta Nell who said she vowed to support her nephew.
"The Henri that I know - nothing in the 19 years that I knew him led me to think that there's a danger in Henri," Ms Nell said.
'Savage and vicious'
Mr van Breda had denied murdering his brother Rudi and parents Martin and Teresa. All three were found dead at the family's mansion in South Africa's Stellenbosch on January 27, 2015.
He also denied leaving his sister Marli with near-fatal head, neck and throat injuries.
But last month, Mr van Breda was convicted of three counts of murder, one of attempted murder and one of obstructing justice with the Judge Siraj Desai describing the verdict as "inescapable".
Mr Desai said the 2015 rampage was "savage and vicious" with "an almost unprecedented degree of disregard for one's family".
Henri van Breda, Marli van Breda, Rudi van Breda and their parents Teresa and Martin van Breda. Source: Facebook
"They were attacks involving a high degree of uncontrolled violence. The victims were unarmed [and] they faced an axe-wielding son or brother," Mr Desai said.
During the trial, Mr van Breda had told the court that a late-night intruder had entered the family's luxury residence on the ultra-secure De Zalze Golf Estate.
In his testimony, he claimed he was in the bathroom when a masked intruder began attacking his family.
He had suffered superficial stab wounds, which he claimed were caused by wrestling with an attacker. He said he then fell unconscious.
Prosecutors insisted the wounds were self-inflicted.
The trial generated global interest in how a privileged son unleashed such a brutal attack on his family, whose fortune - estimated at US$16 million - was derived from property.
The van Breda family had moved to Australia, living in Perth and the Sunshine Coast, before returning to South Africa in 2014.
Additional reporting: AFP
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