WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT – Andrea’s demise, which occurred in 1978, was handled as an accident till her older brother Desmond Bernard went to police in 2022.
Janice Nix was discovered responsible of the manslaughter of Andrea Bernard on Tuesday (Picture: PA)
A stepmother killed a five-year-old lady by scalding her in a scorching tub as a punishment practically half a century in the past, jurors discovered. Janice Nix, 67, was discovered responsible of the manslaughter of Andrea Bernard by forcing her into the bathtub in Thornton Heath, south London, in 1978. Andrea’s demise was handled as an accident till her older brother Desmond Bernard went to police in 2022 with a brand new account of what occurred, Isleworth Crown Courtroom heard.
Nix, of Clapham, south London, shook her head earlier than weeping within the dock as she was additionally convicted of cruelty to Mr Bernard between October 1975 and June 1978, when he was seven to nine-years-old. Giving proof in the course of the trial, Mr Bernard, now 56, tearfully informed jurors that he had initially described his sister’s demise as an accident as a result of he wished Nix to cease beating him. Mr Bernard stated that Nix beat him with a belt, burned him with a cigarette, bit him and made him eat cat meals.
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He stated that Nix frequently beat the youngsters, even for not folding their garments “to her requirements”. Mr Bernard described Nix as bodily “sturdy” with a “heavy-set construct”, the courtroom heard.
Jurors heard that on June 6, 1978, Nix was “livid” after Andrea ignored directions to not depart the home and to assist clear as a substitute. Nix shouted at Andrea in an “extraordinarily loud” voice earlier than beating her, the courtroom heard.
Mr Bernard stated he later heard the bathtub operating.
He went on: “I might hear Janice shouting ‘get within the tub’ and I might hear Andrea saying ‘the bathtub is just too scorching mummy’. I might hear Janice shouting ‘get within the tub, get within the tub’ after which I heard screaming and splashing. Then I heard the screaming stopped and I might hear Janice calling Andrea to ‘get up, get up’.”
Requested by prosecutor Kerry Broome how Nix sounded, he replied: “She sounded scared.”
Mr Bernard stated he then entered the lavatory and noticed Nix cradling Andrea, who was “limp” and wrapped in a towel.
He added: “I might see pores and skin falling off her.”
Requested whether or not Nix stated something, Mr Bernard replied: “She requested me to say it was an accident… and to say that we have been within the backyard when it occurred and that she would by no means beat me once more.”
Requested what he did, he stated: “I lied, I informed everybody that story.”
Requested why, Mr Bernard replied: “As a result of I didn’t really feel protected, I simply wished it to cease.”
He informed jurors he lived in “fixed worry” of Nix’s beatings and didn’t inform anybody as a result of he feared being “punished extra”.
Talking about why he determined to inform others about his sister’s demise, Mr Bernard stated: “I couldn’t stick with it coping with it, in order that’s what I did.” He added: “To position this burden the place it ought to go.”
Janice Nix, 67, was remanded in custody (Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)
Andrea died practically six weeks after arriving at hospital with burns to 50% of her physique, the courtroom heard.
A burns knowledgeable informed the trial {that a} youngster uncovered to water scorching sufficient to trigger Andrea’s accidents would instinctively attempt to get out by standing up, not stay seated.
Prosecutors argued this meant Nix will need to have forcibly held components of Andrea’s physique underwater.
Nix, then referred to as Janice Thomas and in her late teenage years, had been in a relationship with the youngsters’s father, additionally named Desmond Bernard, and was in impact their stepmother, the courtroom heard.
Throughout the 1978 inquest investigation, Nix had initially claimed Andrea took a shower on her personal and later complained of itchy legs earlier than fainting, jurors heard.
However she admitted throughout her trial to giving a false account of the occasions to the coroner as a result of she was “in a panic” over having did not supervise Andrea whereas she took a shower.
“I realised I had accomplished one thing I shouldn’t have accomplished: I ought to have been with Andrea,” she informed jurors.
“I used to be younger and I used to be clearly not pondering. On hindsight now, I see my negligence as a young person.”
The defendant additional informed the courtroom she didn’t on the time realise the bathwater was scalding scorching, including: “All I do know is that she was in misery, her legs have been purple, that they had bubbles on them… I didn’t know the way scorching the water was.”
Throughout a 2022 police interview, Nix gave a model of occasions that differed “considerably” from her unique assertion from the time, having not been informed that investigators had discovered it, the Metropolitan Police stated.
5-year-old Andrea Bernard, who died within the late Nineteen Seventies (Picture: Metropolitan Police/PA Wire)
She additionally claimed that the coroner discovered Andrea’s demise was due to an overheated tub attributable to a defective boiler — one thing not talked about within the report.
Nix was arrested at Heathrow Airport on February 18, 2025, after arriving on a flight from Antigua, and was charged later that day.
Nix had denied each the fees of manslaughter and cruelty to a toddler.
Detective inspector Louise Caveen, from the Met’s chilly case murder workforce, stated: “This can be a notably tragic case and my ideas in the end stay with Andrea’s household, whose lives have been modified irrevocably again in 1978.
“Particularly, I wish to pay tribute to Desmond, who bravely made the choice to come back ahead and converse to us, in addition to giving proof at trial.
“It’s due to his braveness that Nix has now been discovered responsible and can lastly be held accountable for her actions.”
Aisling Hosein of the Crown Prosecution Service stated: “This was a harrowing case the place Janice Nix subjected Andrea and her older brother to a sustained interval of abuse, culminating within the tragic demise of a five-year-old lady after she was pressured right into a scalding scorching tub.
“This prosecution solely took place after Andrea’s brother reported his stepmother’s actions to police in September 2022, ensuing within the circumstances into what occurred on that day in 1978 being re-examined.
“I can solely think about the large braveness this will need to have taken to come back ahead after being informed as a toddler to say the incident was simply an accident.
“It’s due to him that we’ve been capable of safe justice at the moment on behalf of Andrea nearly 5 many years on.”
Nix was remanded in custody to be sentenced at a later date.
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