A heartbreaking photograph of a five-year-old girl who was scalded to death in a boiling bath by her stepmother has been released for the first time, nearly five decades after her tragic death.
Conviction Decades Later
Janice Nix, now 67, burst into tears as she was found guilty of manslaughter at Isleworth Crown Court this afternoon. The crime occurred in 1978 when Andrea Bernard was just five years old. Nix punished the little girl by forcing her into a scalding hot bath at their home in Thornton Heath, south London.
Andrea pleaded, “This is too hot, mummy,” as she suffered severe burns to half of her body. She died in hospital on 13 July 1978, five weeks after the incident. Police have now released an image of Andrea looking forward to her final Christmas, following Nix’s conviction.
Brother’s Courageous Testimony
Andrea’s death was originally treated as an accident until her older brother, Desmond Bernard, approached police in 2022 with a new account of what happened. The 56-year-old said the burden of his sister’s death had become too heavy to carry. He testified that Nix regularly beat the children for minor infractions, such as not folding clothes to her standards.
During the trial, Mr Bernard tearfully explained that he initially described his sister’s death as an accident because he wanted Nix to stop beating him. He detailed horrific abuse, including being beaten with a belt, burned with a cigarette, bitten, and forced to eat cat food.
The Fatal Day
On 6 June 1978, Nix was furious after Andrea ignored instructions not to leave the house. She shouted at Andrea in an extremely loud voice before beating her. Mr Bernard heard the bath running and then heard Nix shouting, “Get in the bath,” while Andrea cried, “The bath is too hot mummy.” He then heard screaming and splashing before silence, followed by Nix calling Andrea to wake up.
Nix initially claimed during the 1978 inquest that Andrea had taken a bath on her own and later complained of itchy legs before fainting. However, she admitted during her trial that she had given a false account because she was in a panic over failing to supervise Andrea. “I realised I had done something I shouldn’t have done: I should have been with Andrea,” she told jurors. “I was young and I was clearly not thinking. On hindsight now, I see my negligence as a teenager.”
Arrest and Justice
Nix was arrested at Heathrow Airport on 18 February 2025 after arriving from Antigua and was charged later that day. She had denied charges of manslaughter and cruelty to a child. The jury also found her guilty of assault and ill-treatment of Andrea’s brother between 1975 and 1978.
Aisling Hosein of the Crown Prosecution Service said: “This was a harrowing case where Janice Nix subjected Andrea and her older brother to a sustained period of abuse, culminating in the tragic death of a five-year-old girl after she was forced into a scalding hot bath. This prosecution only came about after Andrea’s brother reported his stepmother’s actions to police in September 2022, resulting in the circumstances into what happened on that day in 1978 being re-examined. I can only imagine the enormous courage this must have taken to come forward after being told as a child to say the incident was just an accident. It is thanks to him that we have been able to secure justice today on behalf of Andrea almost five decades on.”
