A tycoon's son was today locked up for life in a South African jail for brutally hacking his parents and older brother to death with an axe.

Henri Van Breda appeared impassive as a judge sentenced him to three life sentences for the grisly killings of his parents Martin, 54, and Teresa, 55, and brother Rudi, 22, in Stellenbosch, a scenic town in a wine-growing area near Cape Town, in 2015.

Van Breda, 23, also received a 15-year sentence in the Western Cape High Court for the attempted murder of his sister Marli, then 16, at the time of the attacks.

She suffered severe head injuries in a bloody onslaught that Judge Siraj Desai described as 'cold-blooded' murder. Marli now inherits the family's £12million fortune.

Van Breda also received a one-year sentence for obstructing justice after the court concluded that he inflicted injuries on himself to try to mislead police.

The judge said there had been no explanation for the slayings. Rumours appeared in local papers that Van Breda had a drug addiction and had run up debts and that his parents had cut off his allowance and were trying to make him go into a clinic to deal with his problems. But no such evidence ever came before the court or was brought by Van Breda in mitigation.

Henri van Breda (pictured on Thursday) has been locked up for life in a hell-hole South African jail for brutally hacking his multi-millionaire parents and his older brother to death with an axe

It means that he will lose his £6million inheritance from the family estate as he is not allowed under South African law to benefit financially from his crime.

Therefore, the family's £12m fortune will all go instead to his surviving sister who told investigators her older brother had always treated her as a 'princess' but she has no recollection of the attack.

Their father Martin was the managing director of an international real estate company as well as MD of 25 other companies and made his fortune from property and investments.

Despite being the only survivor Marli suffered such horrific injuries she did not give evidence due to total memory loss during the 66-day trial which has made headlines since the opening day.

Van Breda has maintained his innocence throughout the trial and had put the blame on two mystery black men wearing balaclavas for the killings which shocked the high society circles he moved in.

During his sentencing, Van Breda smartly dressed in a grey suit, collar and tie, showed no emotion and stared straight ahead before he was cuffed and led away to the cells below.

His girlfriend Danielle Janse van Rensburg was pictured embracing a family member after the sentencing.

She began dating Van Breda a year after the brutal triple murder took place and has insisted that he is not capable of such a horrific crime.

'Anyone who spends a day with him will realise he couldn't do such a thing. I believe in his innocence 100 per cent,' she said in 2016.

Van Breda (left, with his family) was sentenced to three life sentences for the murder of his father Martin, mother Teresa, and older brother Rudi. He also tried to savagely murder his teenage sister Marli (second from left)

Van Breda's girlfriend Danielle Janse van Rensburg, who began dating him a year after the brutal murders took place, embraces family members at the Western Cape High Court in Cape Town

Judge Desai sitting at Cape Town High Court said: 'You have committed crimes of unbridled violence against your own family killing three and causing serious injuries to the fourth who was fortunate to survive.

'The victims were unarmed and defenceless and it was a cold-blooded murder and the violence was excessive and gratuitous and the intention was clearly to kill them although one survived.

'We have no explanation for what you did and you have shown no remorse and although you are relatively young and have no previous convictions your conduct warrants the severest penalties.

'The attacks displayed a high level of savage and innate cruelty and almost unprecedented disregard for the welfare of your parents and siblings. The strictest penalties apply. Society expects no less'.

The 23-year-old had pleaded not guilty to charges of killing his parents and brother, severely injuring his sister and tampering with the crime scene at their home in Stellenbosch in 2015

His fate was sealed when Judge Siraj Desai found him guilty of all five charges last month.

The horrific crime took place in the early hours of the morning at the families' luxury villa on the De Zalze Winelands Golf Estate at Stellenbosch in January 2015 as the van Breda family slept.

The first floor bedrooms were turned into a bloodbath with van Breda inflicting at least 17 brutal axe wounds with the 10lb wood cutting axe on the skulls and necks of his family.

Van Breda's jailing means the family £12m fortune will all go instead to his surviving sister Marli (pictured)

Company director dad Martin died after sustaining at least six axe blows to his head and neck.

His wife Teresa was struck at least three times and older brother Rudi, 22, hit four times.

Younger sister Marli, now 19, suffered at least four vicious head wounds from the axe, but survived.

Van Breda, who was found to have superficial wounds and injuries that the prosecution claimed were self-inflicted, claimed that he desperately managed to fight off the axeman.

He described the man as laughing hysterically as he hacked his family to death and attacked his sister and said he fought a 'life or death' struggle with him until he fled the family mansion.

He said he disarmed the axeman and that both intruders then fled the property on the exclusive estate 25 miles away from Cape Town although no evidence of any break-in was ever found.

The super secure estate has perimeter electric fencing all round and security gates and 24-hour dog patrols and CCTV but nothing was stolen and no evidence found of anyone ever breaking in.

The bedrooms were turned into a bloodbath with Van Breda inflicting at least 17 brutal wounds with the 10lb wood cutting axe (pictured) on the skulls and necks of his family

Henri van Breda departs the dock after being sentenced to three life terms at the Western Cape High Court on Thursday

Van Breda faces life in brutal South African prison Instead of the life of luxury and fast cars that lay before him, the rich boy with the world at his feet will be taken to Pollsmoor Maximum Security Prison, which is a death sentence for many prisoners. The prison built for 4,336 men has over 7500 dangerous criminals locked inside and is run by rival gangs and violent attacks and gang rape is what greets most new arrivals at the nightmare jail. With wealthy relatives and being white in a prison where 98% are black or coloured he will be targeted from the moment he arrives through the intimidating gates the moment they close. Already whilst awaiting sentence and being kept in the hospital wing for his own safety, the Weekend Argus has reported how he was attacked by five inmates while walking back to his cell. He only escaped serious injury after a fellow inmate in the hospital wing ripped a metal condom dispenser from the wall and used it as a weapon to beat van Breda's assailants off of him. But having been sentenced he will shortly be released from the safety of the hospital into the main prison where gangs rule and unless he can buy protection, faces a daily battle for survival. Cells built to take 30 men are often filled with up to 80 prisoners who have to share one filthy communal toilet and most have to sleep on the floor and many are without any blankets. He will be forced to swap his designer clothes for orange overalls and go through a humiliating full body search and be given a blanket which will almost certainly be stolen on the first night. If he is forced to join a Numbers Gang inside - either the 26s, 27s or 28s, he will be expected to be a members 'wife' and if he does not obey their rules can face murder, mutilation or gang rape. If he does not join a gang he does not have the protection of it and is on his own unless he can secure protection as there is only one warden per 100 inmates and at night, the wardens leave. As well as the fear of murder, there is a huge suicide risk and inmates in such cramped conditions often contract TB or Weil's Disease from the rats as well as the huge risk of HIV infection. Actor Ross Kemp, whose award-winning documentary Ross Kemp on Gangs took a look inside Pollsmoor, said after going inside: 'It is a human zoo. I am frightened. Not even the warders inside here are safe.' Advertisement

Van Breda is pictured in the High Court on Tuesday when he was found guilty of the murders

After the attack, it was several hours before van Breda called the emergency services as he said at first he could not remember their phone number and he believes that he then blacked out.

Prosecutor Susan Galloway said before sentence:'There is no remorse or explanation and he does not show sympathy for his sister who has lost everything. Nothing will be the same again for her.

'Despite her age she has to go through her whole life with the knowledge that her brother killed her whole family and tried to kill her – the same brother who she said treated her like a princess.

'The accused was part of a close knit family with no financial problems and they all had bright futures ahead of them but he executed the attack when the family were at their most vulnerable in bed'.

Van Breda has insisted he was innocent throughout the trial and no motive has ever been discovered.

Under South African law a person is not able to benefit financially from crime so the £12 million family fortune will not be split in half between Henri and his sister Marli but all will be passed onto her.

Van Breda's legal team have been given leave to appeal both conviction and sentence in two weeks time.