Former preschool teacher admits to drowning ex-boyfriend’s daughter (4)
Amber Lee Hughes is making an appearance in the Johannesburg High Court, where the admission was submitted.
Former preschool teacher Amber Lee Hughes makes an appearance in the Johannesburg High Court on 24 July 2025. Picture: Ntokozo Khumalo/EWN
JOHANNESBURG - A former preschool teacher has admitted to drowning her ex-boyfriend’s four-year-old daughter.
Amber Lee Hughes is making an appearance in the Johannesburg High Court, where the admission was submitted.
It comes after Hughes was granted seven days with her new legal team to chart a way forward in her case.
Hughes was arrested in connection with the murder and rape of 4-year-old Nada-Jane Chalita in 2023.
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The family of the 4-year-old were hoping for closure last week when the final verdict of the case was meant to be handed down.
But this was delayed to allow for Hughes’s new legal representation to familiarise themselves with the case.
In the short yet shocking sitting on Thursday, the court received new admissions from Hughes.
Hughes, who had previously denied all charges, has now admitted to submerging the little girl in a bathtub in the Bedforview apartment she shared with the victim and her father.
Her lawyer, Marius Bower, said her actions were prompted by an argument she had with Elie Chalita, the child’s father, before the girl’s death.
“Paragraph 8. I admit that I have drowned the deceased, Nada Jane Chalita, 23 January 2023 by sitting on her, which had the result that she was submerged in the water.”
The case has been postponed to 7 August to allow for the State to go over the new admissions.