A man has confessed to raping and stabbing his 11-year-old cousin to death before dumping her dead body on an overgrown lot where it was later found by distraught relatives.

Juan Carlos ‘Pelado’ Rodriguez, 24, allegedly broke down and confessed to cops to having raped and killed his own cousin, Yoseli Ailen Rodriguez Pereyra.

The incident took place in the town of Media Agua in the Argentine province of San Juan in the early hours of 2nd January.

The crime was discovered when the youngster’s lifeless body was found in an overgrown plot of land in the town with 11 stab wounds to her neck and face.

The victim had gone to sleep at her aunt’s house following a family celebration, only for the cousin to allegedly enter the bedroom and whisk her away while covering her mouth with his hand.

He then allegedly took her to a field some 80 metres away, where, according to prosecutor Ivan Grassi, “he raped her and stabbed her 11 times in the neck and face”.

According to the prosecutor, the suspect, who worked in a local kitchen, allegedly raped the girl both vaginally and anally before stabbing her to death.

He added: “Then he dragged her five metres to the southeast, left her half-naked, hid the knife and fled.

“Drunk, at six o’clock, he went to his mother’s house. They saw him arrive with bloodstains, and he said ‘I messed up’.”

Grassi has requested that judge Alberto Caballero charge the suspect with ‘sexual abuse with carnal intrusion’ and aggravated murder.

The judge authorised that the suspect be remanded in custody for a year at a hearing during which the accused, accompanied by his lawyer, only spoke to tell the judge he had no criminal record.

He was then taken to Chimbas Prison in the provincial capital San Juan.