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MURDER accused Jaftha Andries yesterday told the Circuit Court in Oudtshoorn he was kicked by police and threatened with death, “behind a large cliff where no one could see” them.

Andries, 43, took the stand for the first time in his trial, in which he is accused of abducting, raping and murdering his eight-year-old niece, Charmaine Conradie, at the Calitzdorp rubbish dump in February last year.

He was testifying in a trial within a trial on the admissibility of evidence that he pointed out scenes to the police and made statements about her death.

On a number of occasions, Andries said he was with Charmaine in the mountains and at the Calitzdorp sewerage dam. His legal representative, Wentzel Botha, asked if that had really happened and Andries said he just said that because he was afraid he would be assaulted by police.

Andries said Oudtshoorn detective head Thys Viljoen did not tell the truth.

“He took me to the mountain with my hands cuffed in front of me. At the top, he made me sit on a boulder, kicked twice at my ribs and later at my back. He said I must say I murdered the child or he would kill me and bury my body under the stones.” Andries said Viljoen assaulted him “behind a big cliff where no one could see” them.

He denied knowing anything about a warthog hole. The court last week heard evidence from police, Kannaland mayor Nicky Valentyn, and Owen Ryneveldt, a prisoner when Andries was awaiting trial, that the accused told them he had hidden the girl‘s body in a warthog hole.

“When Captain Gordon asked me where I hid the child, I said she was in a warthog hole because I did not know where her little body was hidden,” Andries told the court.

Botha said statements Andries made before a magistrate in George should also not be admitted into evidence as these were also made under duress. “I was threatened by police to admit to a crime I did not commit,” his client apparently told him. He also said the court should discount evidence given by Ryneveldt as his criminal record made him an unreliable witness.

Judge Burton Fourie rejected the application. “The court is of the opinion Andries was not threatened,” he said.

The trial continues.