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The North West High Court has dismissed 21-year-old Xander Bylsma's application for leave to appeal his conviction and life sentence for murder.
He was sentenced in August 2020 to two life terms for killing two teenage girls at the hostel of Hoërskool Stella in Mahikeng.
Bylsma was 19 at the time when he strangled 16-year-old Marna Engelbrecht and 17-year-old Sharnelle Hough.
Their bodies were found hanging on the school’s dormitory premises by a matron at the school.
Hough was found hanging from the staircase balustrade, whilst Engelbrecht was found in an upstairs bathroom.
Following his conviction, Bylsma’s defence attorneys made an application for leave to appeal and the case be moved to the Supreme Court of Appeals.
Judge Ronald Hendricks said on Friday that having considered all grounds of appeal and having listened to both counsel’s submissions and studying heads of argument, he was of the view that no other court, as a court of appeal, would come to a different decision.
