Stepmum jailed for 1978 killing of girl, 5

A woman who killed her five-year-old stepdaughter by scalding her in a bath in 1978 has been jailed for 12 years.

Janice Nix, 67, punished Andrea Bernard by forcing her into the piping hot water in Thornton Heath, south London, nearly 50 years ago.

Andrea suffered severe burns to half her body and died in hospital on 13 July 1978, five weeks later. The jury heard her death had been treated as an accident until Andrea’s older brother, Desmond Bernard, went to police in 2022.

Nix was found guilty of Andrea’s manslaughter. Sentencing her at Isleworth Crown Court, Judge Justice Lavender said: “I’m sure that you ran the bath, you knew how hot it was… You heard her screams.”

“At the very least the risk ought to have been obvious to you,” the judge added.

Nix, of Clapham, was also convicted of cruelty to Desmond Bernard between October 1975 and June 1978, when he was aged seven to nine.

Bernard, now 56, read out a victim impact statement in court and addressed Nix directly, saying: “Your actions robbed me of my sister, and my sister of her life.”

Nix was shaking her head and appeared to be mouthing words while he spoke to her.

She will serve two-thirds of the 12-year prison sentence before she can be released on licence, the judge said.

Jurors heard that on 6 June 1978, Nix was “furious” after Andrea ignored orders not to leave the house and to help with cleaning.

Bernard said he later heard the bath running after Andrea had suffered a beating from Nix.

He added: “I could hear Janice shouting ‘get in the bath’ and I could hear Andrea saying ‘the bath is too hot mummy’.”

He then heard screaming before Nix began calling for Andrea to “wake up”.

Bernard then entered the bathroom and saw Nix cradling Andrea, who was “limp” and wrapped in a towel.

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