Cape Town - In the days before she died, a desperate 16-year-old Charmaine Mare used her cellphone to record the attempts alleged killer Johannes de Jager made to have sex with her.
Left alone in her friend’s Kraaifontein home with De Jager while the rest of the family had gone on a pre-planned cruise, from January 7 to 11, a frightened Charmaine recorded 14 exchanges with De Jager. In one she says: “Uncle, your hands are cold.” De Jager replies: “But it will get warm.” “No, remove it… no, uncle, please can I lie alone?”
Charmaine had also told De Jager she was under-age. “And so?” De Jager said. She said she wanted to wait until she was married to have sex.
In the voice recordings, played in the Western Cape High Court by Hawks investigator Lieutenant-Colonel Mike Barkhuizen, Charmaine repeatedly asked him why he wanted to get into bed with her, saying she wanted to be alone.
Charmaine, of Kriel in Mpumalanga, had been in Cape Town to stay with her friend Kristen White. Kristen lived with her mother, Carol White, who was De Jager’s girlfriend, and De Jager’s son Nick.
When the family returned, Charmaine was not at home. De Jager said she had gone to buy cigarettes. But when she did not return they reported her missing. In fact, she was dead. According to De Jager’s plea explanation, she had slipped and hit her head on the bath. He panicked, he said, and stuffed her body in a drain. Later, when he could not get her body out, he hacked off her arms and legs, dumped the torso elsewhere and set it alight.
De Jager has pleaded not guilty to murdering Charmaine and also to murdering and raping Hiltina Alexander, an 18-year-old prostitute, in 2008.
Barkhuizen also referred to BlackBerry messages between Charmaine and a family friend in Mpumalanga, referred to only as Mrs Venter.
Charmaine told Venter she desperately wanted to go home because De Jager was making sexual advances.
They exchanged messages on January 9, in which she said she was scared about that evening. She did not have airtime and could not phone for help. She had asked her family to buy her a bus ticket home, but they were struggling to collect the money. Venter replied that she also had no money to buy her a ticket.
She advised her to lock her bedroom door and to warn De Jager that she would report him to police should anything happen. Charmaine said the door did not have a lock, so Venter advised her to push something against it.
Charmaine told Venter she had been too scared to sleep. “I recorded him, tannie… I’m going to play it for her (Carol White),” Charmaine said.
The next day, January 10, Venter advised her to eat something because, if she was weak, De Jager would be able to take advantage of her. Charmaine sent her a drawing of a crying face.
Venter promised her art classes if she promised not to take drugs again. An excited Charmaine responded: “Really, tannie? I promise I will, I’ve been clean for two weeks. I want to make something of my life.”
Cape Argus