The devastated mother of a six-year-old girl who was killed and then raped on a Christmas sleepover at a friend’s house has told a court of the heartbreaking last kiss she gave her.

Little victim Shaki’s throat was cut by her friend’s father before he went on to violate her corpse.

Now her mother – not named in local media in Baden-Baden, Baden-Wuerttemberg state, Germany – has told a trial on 17th November how she sent her off on the playdate that cost her life.

She said: “I gave her a last kiss. I cuddled her and I said that we would see each other in the morning.”

The impromptu playdate was fixed in a local playground where Shaki used to play with a local boy whose 34-year-old father Sven Messner is now accused of killing her.

Her mum said that Shaki had twice been on sleepovers with other friends she had met at the playground.

She had spoken with the father and son who had offered to look after her and that they made a good impression.

She said: “All the kids liked them”.

But the mum never saw her daughter again alive.

She said in the morning when Messner had not brought her daughter home as planned, she went to the house.

She said she had collapsed completely – suffering blackouts – when told by a neighbour on the way that there had been a fire and there was a pool of blood everywhere.

She only found out much later about the horrific way her daughter had died.

Ironically, Shaki had been due to spend the night with her father but he had cancelled at the last minute, the court heard.

Shaki’s mother gave testimony by video camera so that she did not have to meet the accused in court.

Earlier, the court heard how Messner had cut the girl’s throat and then raped her.

He then set fire to the house by turning on the gas and then switching on the Christmas tree lights in order to cover up the crime, even though four relatives were sleeping in the property at the time.

Firefighters showed up to a burning house, with Messner found unconscious in the garden.

His son survived the ordeal despite suffering from smoke inhalation along with three unnamed relatives.

Messner, who had no previous convictions, said nothing so far about what happened.

The former road-builder listened to the mother’s statement with no emotion.

As well as murder, he is charged with disturbing the peace of the dead and the attempted murder of the four people that were in the house when he set it on fire, as well as arson.

Baden-Baden public prosecutor Michael Klose told media: “Officially he has made no statements, so we are dependent on other evidence.”

The murder was carried out at his home in the German town of Baden-Baden, in the state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, in south-western Germany, on Sunday, 19th December, 2021.

While in prison awaiting trial, Messner has refused to be examined by a psychiatrist and has allegedly tried to take his own life several times.

The offender’s brother Mike Messner, aged 41, said: “Not a day goes by that I don’t think about that little girl. I loved my brother, but now I hate him.

“The devil must have gotten into him.”

Necrophilia is described by psychologists as the sexual attraction to dead bodies.

A verdict is expected later this month.