EIGHT-year-old Charmaine Conradie was repeatedly raped before a plastic bag was pulled over her head.

She was then hit on the head with a Coke bottle filled with water and her body was hidden in a warthog hole, the Oudtshoorn Circuit Court heard yesterday.

The girl‘s uncle, Jaftha Andries, 43, is standing trial for her abduction, rape and murder in Calitzdorp in February last year.

The child went missing on February 8 and her decomposed body was found a week later near the Calitzdorp rubbish dump.

Andries was arrested during an extensive search for Charmaine after apparently acting suspiciously. He has pleaded not guilty.

Owen Ryneveldt, an inmate at the prison in Oudtshoorn where Andries was awaiting trial, described in detail what the accused apparently told him happened at the rubbish dump. Ryneveldt said Andries confided in him on February 16 last year, the day after he arrived at the jail.

He said Andries told him he had taken a lift into town with his employer on the Friday Charmaine disappeared. After that, he went to the rubbish dump where he drank and smoked dagga with Isak van Rooyen, also known as “Sakkie Tiep”.

Van Rooyen was also arrested in connection with Charmaine‘s death, but was later released as he could not be positively linked to the case.

Ryneveldt said Andries had told him the men saw Charmaine at the rubbish dump and called her over. Andries then started to rub her body.

The little girl started to cry when Andries asked her if he could “do business with her”.

“He said she was always very cheeky at home. Andries and Sakkie Tiep both raped the girl and then Sakkie Tiep said she had to be killed,” Ryneveldt said. He said Sakkie Tiep told Andries the girl “knows uncle and will tell people”.

The men pulled a plastic bag over Charmaine‘s head and hit her over the head with a Coke bottle. They burnt her underwear, placed her body in a hessian sack and hid it in a warthog hole.

Ryneveldt denied under cross-examination that he had threatened gang violence against Andries to make him talk.

Police Constable Elroy Quantini earlier testified that Andries was seen at the rubbish dump with a plastic bag hidden under his jacket on the morning he was arrested, three days before Charmaine‘s body was discovered.

Andries had apparently said he wanted to place the bag over his head in the event of rain. Quantini said Andries also had a knife on him.

The trial continues.