A 67-year-old woman has been found guilty of killing a five-year-old girl by scalding her in a hot bath as punishment nearly five decades ago.
Guilty Verdict
Janice Nix, from Clapham, south London, was convicted of the murder of Andrea Bernard, who died in Thornton Heath in 1978. The court also found Nix guilty of cruelty to Andrea's older brother, Desmond Bernard, between October 1975 and June 1978, when he was aged seven to nine.
Brother's Testimony
Desmond Bernard, now 56, told jurors that he initially described his sister's death as an accident because he wanted Nix to stop beating him. He approached police in 2022 with a new account of events, leading to the investigation.
The court heard that Nix, previously known as Janice Thomas, was in a relationship with the children's father and acted as their stepmother. The case has drawn attention to historical child abuse and the importance of revisiting cold cases.
