Janet Nix, the pensioner accused of killing her five-year-old step-daughter in Thornton Heath in July 1978, was today found guilty of the manslaughter of Andrea Bernard after new evidence led detectives to open an investigation almost half a century after her death.
Killer: Janice Nix has been found guilty of the manslaughter of her five-year-old step-daughter 48 years ago
Nix, 67, of Rodenhurst Road, Clapham, SW4, was also found guilty of the assault and ill-treatment of Andrea’s older brother, Desmond Bernard, between 1975 and 1978, when he was aged between seven and nine.
Andrea died nearly six weeks after arriving at hospital with severe burns to 50% of her body, caused by being forced into scalding bath water.
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 walked in to Croydon Police Station and said he believed Nix was responsible for Andrea’s death. Desmond recounted how he and his siter had lived in terror of punishments doled out by Nix, including being beaten and forced to eat cat food.
A criminal investigation was opened as a result.
Detectives trawled 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.
They managed to piece together fragments of information to build a case against Nix.
Detective Inspector Louise Caveen, from the Met’s Cold Case Homicide team, said: “This is a particularly tragic case and my thoughts ultimately remain with Andrea’s family, whose lives were changed irrevocably back in 1978.
“In particular, I want to pay tribute to Desmond, who bravely made the decision to come forward and speak to us, as well as giving evidence at trial. It is thanks to his courage that Nix has now been found guilty and will finally be held responsible for her actions.
“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.”
Child cruelty: Andrea Bernard died of her injuries when just five years old in Thornton Heath in 1978
When questioned by the police, Nix behaved calmly, answering “No comment” to every question. In court, she denied all charges against her.
Nix had plenty of experience of the criminal justice system: she had already spent 20 years in prison, and on release, she’d retrained as a probation officer.
She had a memoir published about her past as a London drug dealer known as “Mama J”, and in 2021 she was interviewed by the BBC over her past. At least, some of her past.
In December 2016, Nix was even invited to speak at a government select committee, as a witness, describing the challenges she faced as an ex-offender in the workplace.
“I felt that society was not forgiving, even though you try your hardest to show people that you have changed,” Nix said at that time.
In 2022, when Desmond Bernard took up his case with the police, he explained that he had always told people his sister’s death was an accident because his abuser, Nix, had promised never to hit him again if he kept the real cause of Andrea’s death a secret.
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 Nix 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 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!”, with Nix shouting at her to get in.
When the screaming stopped, Nix 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 recover the 16-page Coroner’s report. 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 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 no mention of this in the Coroner’s report.
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 and claimed Desmond had provided an inaccurate account of what happened that afternoon.
Under oath in court, Nix admitted she had given a false account of the events to the coroner, but said she had been “in a panic” over having failed to supervise the little girl. She put this down to her “negligence” as a then 19-year-old, telling jurors that she’d been busy gardening when she heard Andrea’s screams and had run to her in seconds to pull her from the water.
Nix insisted that she had never been violent to the children, but Desmond, now 56 years old, described a very different home life with their step-mother.
He told the jury that she had regularly beaten the children, and that she had burned him with a cigarette and made him eat cat food.
He said that on the afternoon of June 6, 1978, Andrea had told him she was in trouble for not helping clean the house.
Bernard told the court that Nix had shouted at his little sister and beaten her, and that he had heard her saying, “The bath is too hot, Mummy,” and Nix shouting, “Get in the bath!” before hearing splashing and screaming.
Bernard told the prosecution team that he had found it very difficult to see his step-mother in court “stand there and lie and try to discredit him”.
Nix will be sentenced at the same court on a date to be set.
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