Killer stepmother guilty of plunging girl into scalding hot bath

A sadistic stepmother who killed a five-year-old girl by forcing her into a scalding hot bath 48 years ago is facing years in jail.

Janice Nix, 67, meted out horrendous punishments to Andrea Bernard and her then eight-year-old brother Desmond including burning the boy with cigarettes and making him eat catfood.

Nix, who would become a major south London drug dealer, once bit Desmond’s arm until she drew blood just for eating chocolate from the fridge.

She was 17 when she forced Andrea into the scalding hot bath at their home in Thornton Heath, south London, on 6 June 1978 as the girl sobbed: ‘It’s too hot mummy.’

Andrea died in a specialist burns unit five weeks later on 13 July.

The death was not treated as suspicious at the time and an inquest accepted Nix’s claims that Angela had got into the bath herself.

Police only began investigating in 2022 when Desmond went to the police.

He was sickened when Nix published her life story and was set to make a fortune while hiding the truth about her stepdaughter’s horrific death.

Nix, now of Rodenhurst Road, Clapham, denied but was convicted of the manslaughter of Andrea and child cruelty to Desmond after a three week trial.

Grey-haired Nix wept upon hearing the verdicts and was remanded in custody ahead of sentence on 19 June.

Nix had admitted to jurors she had a criminal past as a shoplifter dating back to 1975 when she would steal furs from Harrods and take purses from wealthy shoppers in London’s West End.

Nix then became established as a drug dealer, known as ‘Mamma J’ and served long prison sentences during the 1980’s

She claimed she turned her back on crime and became a probation officer, before taking on voluntary work with the homeless for the St Giles Trust.

Isleworth Crown Court heard how the children’s natural mother was jailed in 1975, leaving their father to care for them.

The father bus driver Desmond Bernard snr met Nix when his wife was in prison.

Nix moved into the family home and would look after the children from 1976 until 1978 while their father was at work.

The violence against them began when Desmond told her ‘You’re not my mother’ during an argument.

Prosecutor Kerry Broome said: ‘This was the start of a cycle of violence, which left the children terrified and in extreme fear of Janice.

‘If the children did something Janice perceived as wrong, she would wait until their father was not around and then punish them.

‘The punishments progressed from slapping around the head, and smacking, to being beaten with objects.

‘She would tell them to go and get one of their father’s belts, she would double it up, and beat them both on the arms and legs.

‘The beatings didn’t happen daily, but at least once or twice a week.’

Desmond told police that Janice made him eat cat food when he failed to clean the pet’s bowl and stubbed a lit cigarette out on his hand.

Ms Broome said: ‘On another occasion, Desmond had taken a bite out of the chocolate in the fridge when he wasn’t allowed to do so. Janice bit him on the hand and drew blood.’

Desmond, now 56, also recalled being forced to have a cold bath as a punishment shortly before Andrea was scalded.

He tearfully recalled the horrors of his childhood and recalled how Andrea was terrified to go home and asked to go to her grandmother’s on the day she was burned.

‘She was scared,’ Mr Bernard said.

‘I said no.’

He wept as he told jurors: ‘I wasn’t sure how we would get there, because we would have to get the bus.

‘Because I was not in trouble, I was not concerned enough.

‘As soon as we got through that door, Janice started shouting, beating Andrea… she was furious.’

He said he went up to his room and sat on his opposite the bathroom.

‘I could hear her shouting and slapping, and Andrea, of course, screaming and crying.

‘Next thing I remember is the bath was running… I could hear footsteps back and forth.’

‘I could hear shouting from the bathroom. I could hear Janice shouting, ‘Get in the bath.’

‘And I could hear Andrea saying, ‘The bath is too hot, mummy.’

‘Then I heard screaming and splashing.’

He said this lasted a ‘couple of minutes’, after which he said: ‘Then I heard the screaming stopping. I could hear Janice telling Andrea to wake up.

‘She was holding Andrea in a towel, and Andrea was limp. She was by the bathtub, she was cradling her.

‘Her eyes were closed, sort of fluttering.’

Desmond wept as he was asked to describe Andrea’s body, saying: ‘I could see skin falling off. It seemed like it was her legs.

‘It was red, there were pieces of skin coming off.’

He said Nix seemed ‘panicked’, adding: ‘She asked me to say it was an accident, to say that we were in the garden when it happened, and that she would never beat me again.

‘I lied, I told everyone that story.’

Asked why he did so, Desmond said: ‘I didn’t feel protected, I just wanted it to stop, and that was the only way I thought I could stop it.’

Andrea fought for her life in hospital for six weeks but suffered from infections in her unhealed burns and died of a heart attack caused by sepsis in hospital on 13 July 1978.

Desmond told how he and his sister were forced into a freezing cold bath days before Andrea was burned.

‘I don’t know what we had done but we were shivering in that bath and she knew it was cold, because we told her it was cold.’

As an adult, Desmond sought counselling in 2022 and finally told his mother who encouraged him to go to the police

Nix’s brother Terry Thomas told jurors he witnessed his sister bullying, shouting and beating Desmond and Andrea while staying with them in Thornton Heath in the 1970s.

He told how Nix would pull the ears of Desmond until he cried, and ‘doubled’ a black belt, by folding it in half to thrash the children.

Recalling the night Andrea was scalded Mr Thomas said: ‘I came in from work and Desmond was the only one to greet me at the door.

I went in and saw this thing on the floor like when a snake sheds its skin.

‘I said “What’s this?”. He said “It’s Andrea’s skin, she got burned”. I said “What do you mean she got burned?” but he did not say nothing to me about how.’

Mr Thomas said he visited Andrea in hospital several times but was never told how she was burned and he was never questioned by police.

He has not spoken to Nix for 35 years after their relationship broke down.

‘To tell you the truth. I do not like her ways. I do not like her attitude. I do not like her bullying,’ said Mr Thomas.

Thomas and Nix had both gone to their mother’s funeral in 1998 but they had such a slanging match that the police had to be called.

The pair fell out again when they could not agree on a casket for their dead father.

Nix was brought in for a voluntary police interview in November 2022, in which she gave an account which was ‘completely different’ to that she had given the coroner in 1978, jurors heard.

She told police in 2022: ‘I was alerted to the fact that something was wrong by Andrea’s screams and I ran from the garden.

‘When I got into the bathroom, I could see Andrea was in the bath and that she was scrambling to get out.’

In her 1978 statement she said he was in the garden and Andrea had come out after the bath, but she denied this when it was put to her in police interview in 2022.

A burns expert said it was ‘not plausible’ that Andrea would have been able to get down the stairs given the extent of her injuries, nor would she have complained of itching, the court heard.

Nix also blamed Andrea’s burns on a ‘malfunctioning boiler’ and told police it was ‘normal’ for Andrea to have a bath by herself.

She denied physically disciplining the children and said neighbours and relatives would have seen if the children had any injuries.

Asked why Desmond would make these things up if they were not true, she said: ‘I personally believe that Desmond feels that he didn’t get enough money after Bernard’s death.’

Desmond and his father went back to live with Nix after Andrea’s death and the couple had another child but split up a few years afterwards.

Mr Justice Lavender had reminded the jury to put aside their emotions and judge the case on the facts.

He said: ‘Cases like this can give rise to sympathy, revulsion or other emotions. You must ignore these.

‘When considering what was reasonable you should consider it by the standards of the time.

‘The Crown say that Ms Nix hit Desmond with and without a belt, hit him with a metal pot, made him eat cat food, burnt him with a cigarette, and made him sit in a cold bath and this was done so in a manner likely to cause Desmond harm.

‘Ms Nix denies that she did any of these acts.

‘The Crown’s case is that she did accompany Andrea to the bathroom and that she either placed Andrea in the bath or forced her to get into the bath.

‘Ms Nix’s case is that she was in the garden.’

The judge also reminded the jury of the challenges of giving a verdict on a case from so long ago.

He said: ‘Various records which the police sought to obtain could not be found. Witnesses who might have assisted have died or are unable to give evidence.’

These include the coroner who conducted the initial inquest, Andrea’s father and the doctor who treated Andrea.

Nix’s ‘Breaking Out’ book is still being sold on platforms including Amazon and describes her journey from petty shoplifter to gangland empress, from frightened runaway to proud mother and from drug dealer to probation worker.’

Nix denied manslaughter and child cruelty to Desmond.
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