A woman with reported Antiguan links has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the manslaughter of her five-year-old stepdaughter — nearly half a century after the child suffered fatal burns in a south London home. According to Antigua.news, Janice Nix, 67, was convicted of killing Andrea Bernard after forcing the young girl into a bath of extremely hot water in June 1978.
Andrea sustained severe burns to half of her body and died in hospital on July 13, 1978, approximately six weeks after the incident.
The case went unresolved for decades after Andrea's death was initially treated as an accident. A breakthrough came in 2022 when her older brother, Desmond Bernard, approached police and disclosed what he had witnessed as a child.
At Isleworth Crown Court, Justice Lavender sentenced Nix to 12 years, telling her she knew how hot the bath water was and would have heard Andrea's screams. The judge found that the danger should have been obvious and that Nix had failed to protect the child from serious harm.
Nix was also convicted of cruelty towards Desmond Bernard between 1975 and 1978, when he was between seven and nine years old.
During the trial, jurors heard that Nix became angry with Andrea on June 6, 1978, after the child allegedly disobeyed instructions not to leave the house and failed to help with household chores. Desmond Bernard testified that he heard his sister protesting the bath water was too hot while Nix ordered her into the tub. Moments later, he heard screaming from the bathroom.
He told the court that upon entering the room, he found Andrea limp and wrapped in a towel while Nix attempted to revive her.
Medical experts testified that a child exposed to water hot enough to cause Andrea's injuries would instinctively attempt to escape. Prosecutors argued that Andrea could not have remained in the water without being forcibly restrained.
Desmond Bernard also revealed that following the incident, Nix instructed him to tell authorities the scalding was an accident and that both children had been outside when it occurred.
Addressing Nix directly during sentencing, Bernard said her actions had robbed him of his sister and left him carrying the trauma of that day for nearly five decades. "The last memories I have of my sister's life are piercing screams and lying about her death to survive," he told the court.
A statement from Andrea's mother, Angela Bernard, described her daughter as a sweet, loving and happy child who was the light of her life.
At the time of Andrea's death, Nix was known as Janice Thomas and was in a relationship with the children's father. Court proceedings confirmed she effectively acted as their stepmother.
Investigators later uncovered significant inconsistencies between the account Nix gave during the original 1978 investigation and statements she made to police in 2022.
The case drew additional attention because Nix had gone on to rebuild her life, publishing a memoir and working as a probation officer in later years. She had also previously served prison sentences for major drug offences.
Nix, who lived in Clapham, south London, will serve two-thirds of her 12-year sentence before becoming eligible for release on licence.
For the Bernard family, the conviction and sentence mark the end of a nearly half-century wait for justice in a case that many believed would never be resolved.
