Overview
- Hughes, convicted in August 2025 of raping and murdering her four-year-old stepdaughter, drowned the child in a bathtub at their home in 2023.
- Testifying on February 18, she told the court she "snapped," argued the child was "better off dead," and said she had considered taking both their lives.
- She described long-term psychiatric treatment, diagnoses including PTSD, bipolar type 2, major depressive disorder and borderline personality disorder, and said she stopped medication two months before the killing due to cost.
- Court-assessment evidence from social worker Johanna Wolmarans linked early trauma and BPD to impaired anger regulation that contributed to the offence.
- Judge Richard Mkhabela granted adjournments to allow defence consultations, including on electronic evidence, as proceedings continue and the victim’s father says apologies change nothing.