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

So said judge Siraj Desai in the High Court in Cape Town on Monday when he dashed any hopes that the Henri van Breda axe murder convictions and sentences would move on to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

This means Van Breda‚ convicted of axing his parents and brother to death‚ and attempting to murder his sister too‚ is running out of legal aces up his sleeve.

His advocate Piet Botha was unlikely shocked when he heard in no uncertain terms that the application had been turned down since last week Judge Desai had said he needed a few more days to consider it simply “out of kindness”.

Judge Desai said on Monday‚ “Advocate Botha has not advanced any compelling reason” as to why the appeal should be heard or would have any “reasonable prospect of success” at the supreme court.

He said Botha’s seeking leave to appeal the conviction and sentence were “premised upon the argument that this court erred and misdirected itself” and that "the proven facts exclude a reasonable inference” that it was not Van Breda who carried out the brutal attacks at 12 Goske Street at the luxury estate in Stellenbosch in 2015.