Van Breda denied leave to appeal

He could not have put it more simply: “Hopefully that is the last word on this case.”

With these words, judge Siraj Desai dashed any hope that Henri van Breda’s murder convictions and sentence would move up to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

This means Van Breda‚ convicted in the high court in Cape Town of axing his parents and brother to death‚ and attempting to murder his sister, is running out of legal options.

His advocate, Piet Botha, was told in no uncertain terms that the application had been turned down‚ after Desai had said last week he needed a few more days to consider it simply “out of kindness”.

On Monday, Desai said that Botha had not advanced any compelling reason as to why the appeal should be heard or would have any reasonable prospect of success at the appeal court.

He said Botha’s application for leave to appeal against the conviction and sentence were premised on the argument that the court erred and misdirected itself and that the proved facts excluded a reasonable inference that it was not Van Breda who carried out the brutal attacks at the luxury estate in Stellenbosch in 2015.

Desai said the arguments presented by Botha this time around were similar to‚ if not the same‚ as those presented during the trial itself.

“The evidence establishes conclusively that the applicant was responsible for the commission of these offences and there is no room for any reasonable doubt,” he said.

He said the state had provided conclusive evidence. –