A Pretoria panel beater sentenced to 22 years in jail for his pregnant wife's murder was refused leave to appeal against his conviction and sentence.

Pretoria High Court Acting Judge Mahomed Ismail said the evidence against Pieter Viljoen was "overwhelming", and another court would not come to a different conclusion.

Viljoen was sentenced to 22 years imprisonment in October for the gruesome 2001 murder of his wife, Amelia. She was five months pregnant with their first child when he slit her throat from ear to ear in the couple's Pretoria North home.

Viljoen was convicted of the murder in January after a second high court trial.

He was previously discharged because of lack of evidence after another high court judge threw out his confession to the police and a magistrate. The Appeal and Constitutional courts however ruled that he could be tried again.

Judge Ismail and two assessors later ruled that Viljoen's pointing-out of the murder scene and confessions to a senior police officer, a magistrate and his own father (in the presence of policemen) were admissible as evidence against him.

A forced confession

On Monday, Ismail also refused Viljoen's application to make a special entry on the record about an alleged irregularity in the trial and to re-open his trial so that he could lead new evidence.

The new evidence centred on Viljoen's allegations that he had been assaulted by police and forced to make a confession.

Ismail said Viljoen had filed his application for a special entry 10 months — instead of the prescribed 14 days — after his conviction.

He had also failed to bring such an application before he was sentenced, despite having had ample time to do so.

He said it was common cause that Viljoen had injuries to his wrists. Evidence that someone had seen these injuries would not alter the court's finding that the police had not inflicted the injuries.

Ismail stressed that he regarded Viljoen's sentence as balanced and not excessive or shocking.

He nevertheless extended Viljoen's bail pending a petition for leave to appeal to the President of the Supreme Court of Appeal, provided that the petition was lodged within the next 21 days.

Sapa