Stepmother found guilty of killing five-year-old girl in scalding bath

A stepmother has been found guilty of murdering her five-year-old girl as punishment by scalding her in a hot bath almost half a century ago.

Janice Nix, 67, was convicted of forcing Andrea Bernard into the bathroom in Thornton Heath, south London, in 1978.

Isleworth Crown Court heard Andrea’s death was initially treated as an accident until her older brother Desmond Bernard contacted police with a new account of events in 2022.

Nix, of Clapham, south London, shook his head and wept in the dock as he was found guilty of committing cruelty against Mr Bernard between October 1975 and June 1978, when he was aged seven to nine.

Giving evidence during the trial, Mr. Bernard, now 56, told jurors through tears that he initially described his sister’s death as an accident because he wanted Nix to stop beating him.

Mr Bernard said Nix beat him with a belt, burned him with a cigarette, bit him and fed him cat food.

She said Nix regularly beat the children even for not folding their clothes “to his standards.”

Mr Bernard described Nix as physically “strong” and “heavily built”.

Jurors heard that on June 6, 1978, Nix became “furious” after Andrea ignored instructions not to leave the house and instead help clean.

The court heard Nix shouted in an “extremely loud” voice before beating Andrea.

Mr Bernard later said he heard the bathroom running.

She continued: “I could hear Janice yelling ‘get in the bathroom’ and I could hear Andrea saying ‘the bathroom is so hot mom’.

“I could hear Janice screaming ‘get in the bathroom, get in the bathroom’ and then I heard screams and splashing.

“Then I heard the screaming stop and I could hear Janice calling out to Andrea, ‘wake up, wake up’.”

Asked what Nix sounded like, prosecutor Kerry Broome said: “He sounded scared.”

Mr Bernard said he then went into the bathroom and saw Nix embracing Andrea, who was “limp” and wrapped in a towel.

He added: “I could see his skin was falling off.”

Asked if Nix had said anything, Mr Bernard said: “He asked me to say it was an accident and that we were in the garden when it happened and that he would never beat me again.”

When asked what he did, he said: “I lied, I told everyone this story.”

When asked why, Mr Bernard replied: “I just wanted it to stop because I didn’t feel protected.”

He told jurors that he lived in “constant fear” of being beaten by Nix and didn’t tell anyone because he feared “further punishment.”

Explaining why he decided to tell others about his sister’s death, Mr Bernard said: “I couldn’t keep dealing with it, so that’s what I did.”

He added: “To put this burden where it needs to go.”

The court heard Andrea died from burns to 50% of her body about six weeks after arriving at hospital.

A burn specialist told the hearing that a child exposed to water hot enough to injure Andrea instinctively tried to stand up and get out rather than sit down.

Prosecutors argued this meant Nix was forcibly holding parts of Andrea’s body underwater.

The court heard that in her late teens, Nix, then known as Janice Thomas, was in a relationship with the children’s father, called Desmond Bernard, and was in fact their stepmother.

During the 1978 inquest, Nix claimed Andrea initially bathed on her own and later complained of itching legs before collapsing, jurors heard.

However, during his trial he admitted giving the coroner false information about events because he was “in a panic” because he could not supervise Andrea while she was bathing.

“I realized I did something I shouldn’t have done: I should have been with Andrea,” he told jurors.

“I was young and not thinking clearly. Looking back now, I see my negligence as a teenager.”

The defendant also told the court that he did not realize the bath water was bubbling hot at the time, adding: “All I know is that he was distressed, his legs were red, there were blisters on them… I didn’t know how hot the water was.”

The Metropolitan Police said that during a 2022 police interview, Nix described a version of events that differed “significantly” from his original statement at the time, but was not told that investigators had found it.

He also claimed that the coroner found that Andrea’s death was due to an overheated bathroom caused by a faulty accident; this was something not mentioned in the report.

Nix was arrested at Heathrow Airport on 18 February 2025 after arriving by plane from Antigua and charged later that day.

Nix had denied both involuntary manslaughter and child cruelty charges.

Detective Inspector Louise Caveen, of the Met’s unsolved homicide squad, said: “This is a particularly tragic case and my thoughts are ultimately with Andrea’s family, whose lives were irrevocably changed in 1978.

“I would especially like to express my gratitude to Desmond, who made the courageous decision to come forward, speak to us and testify at the hearing.

“It is because of his bravery that Nix has now been found guilty and finally held accountable for his actions.”

Aisling Hosein, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “This was a harrowing case in which Janice Nix subjected Andrea and her brother to sustained abuse, culminating in the tragic death of a five-year-old girl after she was forced into a scalding hot bath.

“This prosecution arose after Andrea’s brother reported his stepmother’s actions to the police in September 2022, and the circumstances surrounding what happened that day in 1978 were re-examined.

“I can only imagine the tremendous courage it took to come forward after being told as a child that it was just an accident.

“It is thanks to him that we have been able to achieve justice today for Andrea for almost fifty years.”