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A 67-year-old woman has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the manslaughter of her five-year-old stepdaughter, who suffered fatal burns nearly five decades ago. Janice Nix subjected Andrea Bernard to a punishment by forcing her into scalding bathwater at their home in Thornton Heath, south London, in 1978. Andrea sustained severe burns covering half her body and succumbed to her injuries in hospital five weeks later, on 13 July 1978.
Initially, Andrea’s death was recorded as an accident, but the case resurfaced after her older brother, Desmond Bernard, came forward to the police in 2022. During the trial at Isleworth Crown Court, the jury found Nix guilty of manslaughter. Judge Justice Lavender remarked on the sentencing, stating, “I’m sure that you ran the bath, you knew how hot it was… You heard her screams.” The judge also emphasized that the risk should have been obvious to Nix. Alongside the manslaughter charge, she was convicted of cruelty towards Desmond Bernard, who was between seven and nine years old during the time of the abuse.
Desmond Bernard, now aged 56, gave a victim impact statement in court where he accused Nix of causing irreparable harm. He said, “Your actions robbed me of my sister, and my sister of her life.” Throughout his statement, Nix was observed shaking her head and mouthing words. The prosecution outlined that on 6 June 1978, Nix’s anger was triggered after Andrea defied orders not to leave the house or neglect cleaning duties. Witnesses heard the bath filling after Nix had physically punished Andrea. Desmond recalled hearing Nix command Andrea to get into the bath and Andrea responding that it was too hot, followed by screams and Nix calling for her to wake up.
Medical experts testified that a child exposed to water hot enough to cause Andrea’s injuries would instinctively try to escape, implying that Nix must have forcibly restrained her in the bath. Desmond also revealed that Nix had tried to manipulate him into lying about the incident, asking him to claim they were outside when the injury occurred and to say she would no longer be abusive. Reflecting on these experiences, Desmond stated, “The last memories I have of my sister’s life are piercing screams and lying about her death to survive.” He accused Nix of feigning grief at the funeral and deceiving the family, taking advantage of their inability to imagine such cruelty.
Andrea’s mother, Angela Bernard, also provided a statement describing her daughter as a joyful and loving child, the “light of my life.” At the time of the tragedy, Nix was a teenager known as Janice Thomas and was effectively a stepmother in a relationship with Andrea’s father. During the original 1978 inquest, Nix gave conflicting accounts, first saying Andrea bathed alone and later suggesting that a faulty boiler caused the water to overheat, claims that were not substantiated. Years later, in a 2022 police interview, she gave a significantly different version of events without being informed that cops had accessed her original statements.
In addition to her criminal history related to drug offenses, Janice Nix had served in the Probation Service from 2014 to 2019 and earned an award for diversity and engagement. Notably, in 2021, she published a memoir titled *Breaking Out* with Elizabeth Sheppard. The court confirmed that Nix will serve two-thirds of her 12-year sentence before eligibility for release on licence
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