A woman has been found guilty over the death of a five-year-old girl who suffered fatal burns in a scalding bath nearly five decades ago in south London.
A jury at Isleworth Crown Court convicted 67-year-old Janice Nix of manslaughter after prosecutors proved she forced Andrea Bernard into dangerously hot bath water as a form of punishment in 1978. The case remained officially classified as an accident for decades before new testimony reopened the investigation.
The court heard that Andrea suffered severe burns covering nearly half of her body after the incident at a home in Thornton Heath, south London. She later died in hospital almost six weeks after the injuries.
Andrea’s older brother, Desmond Bernard, who was a child at the time, told jurors he decided to come forward in 2022 after years of emotional trauma and fear. He testified that he initially lied to authorities because Nix threatened and abused him physically.
According to court testimony, Desmond Bernard recalled hearing Andrea screaming that the bath water was “too hot” while Nix repeatedly ordered her to get into the bath. Moments later, the screams stopped.
He later entered the bathroom and saw his sister unconscious and wrapped in a towel. He told the court he could see skin coming off her body from the burns.
Prosecutors argued that Andrea’s injuries could not have happened accidentally. A burns specialist testified that a child exposed to such extreme heat would naturally attempt to escape, suggesting Andrea had been forcibly held in the water.
Jurors also convicted Nix of child cruelty against Desmond Bernard for abuse that allegedly took place between 1975 and 1978. The court heard allegations that she beat him with belts, burned him with cigarettes, bit him, and forced him to eat cat food during his childhood.
During the original 1978 investigation, Nix claimed Andrea had bathed herself unsupervised and later collapsed. However, she admitted during the recent trial that her earlier statement was false and said she panicked after failing to supervise the child properly.
The verdict closes one of the United Kingdom’s long-running cold child abuse cases, with prosecutors crediting the courage of Andrea’s brother for helping reopen the investigation decades later.