Woman guilty of killing stepdaughter, five, by scalding almost 50 years ago

A woman has been found guilty of killing her five-year-old stepdaughter by punishing her in a scalding hot bath almost 50 years ago. Andrea Bernard’s death in 1978 in Thornton Heath, south London, was treated as an accident until the girl’s older brother, Desmond Bernard, went to police in 2022 with a new account of what happened, Isleworth crown court heard. Their stepmother, Janice Nix, 67 was found guilty on Tuesday of the manslaughter of Andrea and cruelty to Desmond between October 1975 and June 1978, when he between seven and nine years old. Giving evidence during the trial, Bernard, 56, told jurors he had initially said his sister’s death had been an accident because he had wanted Nix to stop beating him. Jurors heard that on 6 June 1978, Nix was furious after Andrea had ignored instructions not to leave the house and to help clean. After hearing Nix shouting at his sister, Bernard could hear a bath running, he told the court. “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. “Then I heard the screaming stopped and I could hear Janice calling Andrea to ‘wake up’.” Bernard told jurors that when he had entered the bathroom he had seen his sister’s limp body and her “skin falling off her”. Andrea died nearly six weeks after being admitted at hospital with burns to 50% of her body, the court heard. An undated handout photo of Andrea Bernard. …