Chairmaine was a lesbian: De Jager

Johannes Christiaan de Jager, 49, testified that Mare had told him about her sexual orientation while they sat on her bed last January, two days before her death.

 

 

"That was when she told me she is a lesbian and she was previously raped and does not have a boyfriend at all," he said in Afrikaans.

 

 

He has pleaded not guilty to killing the 16-year-old Mpumalanga resident on January 11 last year. He has also denied raping and killing prostitute Hiltina Alexander, 18, in Cape Town in May 2008.

 

 

The court previously heard that Mare moved to Kraaifontein, in Cape Town to live with De Jager, his girlfriend Carol White, and her daughter Kristen.

 

 

Mare and De Jager were home alone for four days while White, her daughter, and De Jager's son were away on a cruise.

 

 

On the second day of the cruise, De Jager went to Mare's bedroom after dinner and they chatted on the bed.

 

 

"I spoke to her and noticed she had a tattoo on her left inner wrist... she showed me and then said she has another tattoo," he testified.

 

 

"Then she put her pants down and showed me another tattoo next to her panties. I think it was a small heart with Nikita's name on it."

 

 

She told him she was a lesbian the following night, when they were again on the bed.

 

 

De Jager said he had approached Mare that night because he had spent the day drinking and was "strongly under the influence".

 

 

His lawyer asked him if that was the night Mare recorded his sexual advances on her Blackberry cellphone. He confirmed it was.

 

 

Mare sent the recordings, which were previously played in court, to her friend Nikita Small in Mpumalanga.

 

 

In the recordings, Mare is heard saying she does not want to sleep with De Jager and that he should take his cold hands off her. She also tells him she is waiting until she is married to have sex.

 

 

De Jager said he only touched her arm once.

 

 

"I would say she was normal. She was not scared or anything like that. She told me that she couldn't do it. In other words, she resisted."

 

 

He said the voice recordings did not reflect that he consoled her when she said she missed her parents, and that he offered her a phone to speak to them.

 

 

He explained how he made meals on other days and left them in the microwave for her because she was sleeping or could not be found.

 

 

She was also free to move around the area and he had tried to encourage her to make friends with young women across the road.

 

 

The trial continues.

 

 

- Sapa