![\"Amber](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2_PAY-NewsX-MurderKinders-02.jpg\")
Amber Lee Hughes, 25, stands accused of the rape and murder of Nada-Jane Challita (pictured)(Image: NX)<\/p>\nWARNING – DISTRESSING CONTENT: Amber Lee Hughes, 25, is accused of raping and murdering Nada-Jane Challita, the four-year-old daughter of her lover, and has gone on trialAmber Lee Hughes, 25, stands accused of the rape and murder of Nada-Jane Challita (pictured)(Image: NX)<\/p>\n
A nursery school teacher who allegedly raped and murdered her boyfriend’s four-year-old daughter <\/a>left her to be found floating in a bath tub after carrying out the wicked act.<\/a> Amber Lee Hughes, 25, is accused of the horrific crimes against Nada-Jane Challita, her partner’s young daughter, with the trial now underway<\/a> at Johannesburg High Court in South Africa.<\/p>\n Hughes’ trial began on Monday, with the defendant pleading not guilty. She allegedly raped and murdered the little girl in January 2023, before drowning her and cutting her wrists.<\/a> National Prosecuting Authority spokesperson, Phindi Mjonondwane, said: “The court heard that the preschool teacher allegedly developed a romantic relationship with the deceased’s father.<\/p>\n “She moved in with them and during her stay, their relationship was allegedly marked by frequent altercations. “<\/p>\n READ MORE: ‘My brave husband had a beautiful death in my arms – now police are investigating’<\/a> Mjonondwane added that Hughes regularly threatened to harm the child during these disputes.<\/p>\n It’s alleged that when the father, Elie Challita, left his daughter alone with Hughes, she raped the girl before drowning her.<\/p>\n The youngster’s lifeless body was later found floating in the bathtub.<\/p>\n Challita, who testified as a witness, told the court that Hughes had become jealous of his daughter.<\/p>\n He said: “[She] was jealous about me giving [Nada-Jane] more attention and spending more money on her.”<\/p>\n On the day of the murder, Challita had attended a job interview. However, Hughes appeared upset that he hadn’t given her a farewell kiss before leaving and suspected him of infidelity.<\/p>\n She sent him a chilling text message stating: “You broke my heart; I’m going to burn yours. How could you do that to me?”<\/p>\n Chalita immediately had a bad feeling about what was about to happen, saying: “I felt my heart fall from my chest; I felt something was very wrong.”<\/p>\n The prosecution called Dr Hestelle van Staden, an expert in forensic pathology, as a witness on Tuesday. She explained her findings from the autopsy and said the cause of death was asphyxiation and sexual assault. The trial continues.<\/p>\n The harrowing case comes after a man admitted raping a newborn baby to death<\/a> while his wife was out buying his daughter nappies. Hugo Ferreira, 37, from Welverdiend, South Africa<\/a>, brutally killed his daughter when she was just one week old.<\/p>\n Speaking to the media, he admitted that he wanted to “give her something to cry about” before carrying out a sickening sexual assault.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WARNING – DISTRESSING CONTENT: Amber Lee Hughes, 25, is accused of raping and murdering Nada-Jane Challita, the four-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":30631,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18227,12,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-33035","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-murder-trial","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114364860580747527","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33035","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33035"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33035\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Picture](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/1_PAY-NewsX-MurderKinders-05.jpg\")
Hughes’ trial began on Monday, with the defendant pleading not guilty(Image: NX)<\/p>\n