Amber Lee Hughes has been convicted of raping and murdering four-year-old Nada-Jane Challita.
Yolanda Mdzeke/News24
Amber Lee Hughes has been found guilty of raping and murdering four-year-old Nada-Jane Challita.The little girl was found raped and drowned at her Glenvista home in January 2023.Hughes was dating Nada-Jane’s father at the time and killed the child after an argument with him.
Amber Lee Hughes has been convicted of raping and murdering four-year-old Nada-Jane Challita by the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg.
The little girl was found drowned in the bathtub of her Glenvista home in January 2023. A post-mortem indicated she had also been sexually assaulted.
Hughes – who was in a relationship with Nada-Jane’s father,Elie Challita,at the time – was subsequently arrested and charged with the crime.
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Hughes had been looking after the child that day while Challita was out of town,and they had been arguing.
The trial kicked off earlier this year,with Hughes pleading not guilty and insisting that the child’s death was an accident.
Judgment was expected in July but wound up being delayed after Hughes made an 11th-hour change to her legal team. She subsequently had a change of heart and admitted to having killed Nada-Jane “by sitting on her,which had the result that she was submerged in the water”.
“I admit that after the deceased did not respond that I left her in the bathtub whilst the cold water tap was left running,” she said.
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READ | Nada-Jane murder: Amber Hughes admits to perjury but denies rape of 4-year-old
Hughes – who first met Challita while she was working at Nada-Jane’s pre-school – further admitted that “the whole event was triggered by the fight I had with the deceased’s father concerning his infidelity and the final trigger was when he told me that I should stop bombarding him”.
She,however,still denied having raped the child.
The post-mortem indicated that Nada-Jane was raped twice and against this backdrop,Hughes was charged with two counts of rape. She was,only convicted of one count in the end.
In the first instance,the evidence presented at trial was that the injuries were fresh and had to have occurred within 12 hours of Nada-Jane’s death,during which time Hughes was the only person with her.
In the second instance,though,the evidence was that the injuries were older. And in handing down his ruling,Judge Richard Mkhabela said the State ultimately conceded it had failed to adduce evidence of Hughes’ guilt.
“This concession was rightly made in my view,” he added.
When it came to the murder charge,meanwhile,Mkhabela said the only question was whether it was premeditated against the backdrop of Hughes now having admitted to killing Nada-Jane.
He found it was.
On the stand,Challita testified that the last thing Hughes said to him that day was “You broke my heart; I’m going to burn yours”.
While she denied having made the threat,Mkhabela found Challita the more credible witness.
The judge said:
[Hughes] has already committed perjury by lying under oath when she testified and denied murdering the deceased. She only made a belated admission to drowning the deceased after both parties have closed their cases.
He said desperate messages Challita had sent to Hughes before Nada-Jane’s body was discovered – asking if the child was okay and begging her not to do “something stupid” – further corroborated his version.
Mkhabela also said a previous threat Hughes had made on the child’s life was “relevant”.
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“The inference is irresistible that [Hughes] made the threat of burning Mr. Challita’s heart and made good on that threat. She did this by running the bath and filling it with sufficient water to achieve her goal. This must have happened immediately after,” he said.
“The inference is irresistible that as soon as [Hughes] made the threat,she set her plan in motion by running the water”.
He rejected Hughes’ version that the child was already in the bath,pointing to photos of the scene which showed the bath had been filled to capacity.
“The undisputed evidence of Mr Chalita is that they were careful to save water and that the bathtub was not filled with too much water on normal days when they bathed the deceased,” he said.
He stressed in his judgment that Nada-Jane was an “innocent child who was barely four-years-old”.
The case was postponed until 27 and 28 October for sentencing proceedings.
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