Woman who killed stepdaughter in 1978 jailed for 12 years

A woman convicted of killing her stepdaughter in 1978 has been sentenced to 12 years in jail.

In May, Janice Nix was found guilty of manslaughter after new evidence led Met detectives to open an investigation into thedeath of five-year-old Andrea Bernard.

Nix, 67 (26.08.58) of Rodenhurst Road, SW4, was sentenced this afternoon at Isleworth Crown Court, where she had also been found guilty of the assault and ill-treatment of Andrea’s older brother Desmond between 1975 and 1978. She was sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment for those offences, to run concurrently.

In a victim impact statement read out in court, Desmond said: “'The last memory I have of my sister's life are my sister's piercing screams and lying about her death.

"Your actions robbed my sister of her life and stole from me the opportunity to grow up with her.

"I was broken and I have never been the same since.”

Detective Inspector Louise Caveen, from the Met’s Cold Case Homicide team, said: “Desmond’s words in court made clear how profound an impact Andrea’s death has had on his whole life.

“Nothing can ever change what happened that day, but we know how important it is to him that Janice has finally faced justice and is now being held responsible for taking his sister’s life.

“His courage in coming forward led to our investigation being opened, and his powerful evidence was vital in ensuring the jury saw through Janice’s lies.

“I hope this case demonstrates that the Met will always review any new evidence that is brought to us, no matter the length of time that has passed. We will use all of the resources we have available to seek out the truth and pursue new opportunities to get justice for all victims who have been unlawfully killed.”

Andrea died nearly six weeks after arriving at hospital with severe burns to 50 per cent of her body, caused by immersion in a scalding bath at their home in Thornton Heath.

The Coroner at the time concluded her death was a result of sepsis caused by the burns, and it was ruled an accidental death.

However, in 2022, her brother Desmond – who was eight years old at the time – came forward to police and said he believed Janice was responsible for Andrea’s death, leading to a criminal investigation being opened.

Detectives carried out extensive enquiries – trawling through thousands of documents found in local authority archives and hospital records as well as attempting to trace anyone who lived in the street at the time who may have remembered the incident.

Although most of their searches proved negative due to the length of time passed, they managed to use fragments of information they found to build a case against Nix.

The investigation

In September 2022, Andrea’s brother Desmond contacted police and told them his sister had died in 1978. Although it had been recorded as an accident, he told police that his stepmother Janice Nix was in fact responsible for causing the burns which ultimately led to her death.

At the time, Desmond had told everyone it was an accident because Nix – who repeatedly physically abused him – had promised never to hit him again if he kept it a secret.

It was only as an adult that Desmond began to tell those closest to him what had happened to his younger sister that day.

In a statement, he said Nix regularly beat him and Andrea up when she thought they were being naughty, and that on the day of the incident, Andrea was in trouble and Janice had not allowed her to go to school.

She had however managed to leave the house and met her brother. On returning home, Nix immediately began shouting at and hitting Andrea before running a bath and calling her to get into it.

Desmond had gone straight up into his bedroom, which was directly next door to the bathroom. Although he couldn’t see what was happening, he heard Andrea screaming “it’s hot it’s hot” repeatedly, with Nix shouting at her to get in. Suddenly the screaming stopped and Janice called him into the bathroom where he found Andrea limp.

Following Desmond’s account, an investigation was started by local officers before detectives from the Met’s Cold Case team took over.

Given the length of time passed, the vast majority of records had not been retained and almost everyone who had been involved in the incident or with the family in any way had died.

Officers did however recover a 16-page Coroner’s report which proved to be vital in the investigation. The report included a description of the injuries Andrea sustained alongside the treatment she received in hospital, as well as a statement from Nix taken shortly after Andrea’s death.

When questioned as part of the 2022 police investigation, Nix was initially not told that her original statement from the time had been found – and she provided a significantly different account of the events of that day. She also claimed that the Coroner had found Andrea died as a result of a tragic accident caused by a malfunctioning boiler which overheated the bath water – there was in fact no mention of this in the Coroner’s report.

When asked to explain these major discrepancies, she made no comment and added it had been a traumatic time in her life.

During trial, expert witnesses gave evidence to explain the level of injury and the likelihood as to how Andrea sustained them.

A burns expert said he would expect a child, when immersed in water hot enough to cause Andrea’s injuries, to immediately try to get out by standing up. He would not expect that they would voluntarily sit down or stay in this position. The prosecution argued that this showed Nix must have caused parts of Andrea’s body to be submerged.

Nix consistently denied any involvement in abusing Desmond nor her part in Andrea’s death and claimed Desmond had provided an inaccurate account of what happened that afternoon.

+Bodyworn video of Nix's arrest can be found here.