BARRIE -- Just before he set Katlin Cousineau's body on fire, Mat Sitte poured gasoline over her in the shape of a pentacle, then lit the fire and prayed for her soul, a jury heard yesterday.

In the fifth week of the murder trial, Sitte, 27, testified how he set the Midland house on fire so that no one would see the evidence of the blistering burns that covered her entire body after she was tortured with a blowtorch Nov. 12, 2005.

On trial for Cousineau's first-degree murder is Paul Bradey, who regularly beat her while she was in handcuffs and tortured her with a blow torch while Sitte held her down, he has testified.

And while Cousineau was left to slowly die as she lay naked on the floor of the basement with nothing to cover her but a sheet, Sitte and Bradey, along with Bradey's girlfriend Susanna Balogh, sat around the kitchen table to discuss burning the house down.

Bradey, Balogh and three kids went to a hotel for the night, while Sitte stayed and lit the fire, he testified.

First, he said, he set a small fire on the kitchen stove and left rags around, opened all the doors to let the wind fuel the fire, then went down the basement with a five-gallon can of gasoline and poured it over Cousineau's body in the shape of a pentacle - the sign for the "love goddess," he said.

"Then I stepped back from her body, lit a book of matches, and threw it at her," said Sitte.

For an instant, he stood and watched as the flames circled her body then engulfed her.

"I could feel the heat of the fire. I could smell the flesh burning ... I stay a few seconds and say a prayer to set her soul free," he said. Suddenly, he said, he realized he forgot to get the kids' three pet rabbits out of their bedrooms.

"I ran upstairs and got two cages and brought them outside. Then I ran back in to get the third one," he said. "The heat was pretty intense. On my way back downstairs I hear a big bang. And I see the kitchen floor collapse and I realize it's time for me to get out of there. I barely get out alive ... then I grab my bottle of rum and sit across the street and watch the fire."

After the house was fully engulfed in flames, Sitte called 911, he said.

While the house was completely burned away, Cousineau's body lay singed but intact, in the basement and fire investigators were quickly able to determine that arson was involved.

The trial continues Monday.