Girl, 5, died after stepmother left youngster in scalding bath inflicting burns so severe that her heart and lungs failed, trial hears
Janice Nix also denies cruelty to Andrea's brother
A stepmother accused of killing a five-year-old girl by forcing her into a bath of scalding water in 1978 left her with burns so severe her heart and lungs failed, a trial has heard.
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Janice Nix, 67, had wrought a “cycle of violence” against Andrea Bernard and her brother Desmond Bernard that went 'beyond chastisement even by contemporary standards'.
Nix was 19 when she is said to have forced Andrea into the hot bath in Thornton Heath, south London, on June 6, 1978.
The young girl died in a specialist burns unit five weeks later.
The defendant, of Clapham, south London, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter for allegedly killing Andrea Bernard and has also denied cruelty to Andrea’s brother Desmond Bernard between October 1 1975 and June 6 1978, when he was seven to nine years old.
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Andrea’s death was treated as an accident for nearly half a century until her brother contacted police with new information in September 2022, Isleworth Crown Court heard at the trial opening on Tuesday.
The coroner's report from 1978 gave the cause of death as "cardio-respiratory failure" caused by sepsis due to "complications from severe burns".
The court was told Andrea suffered "50 per cent full-thickness dermal burns" in areas of her chest and lower abdomen, lower two-thirds of her back, and the perineal region of her inner thighs.
Forensic pathologist Dr Hamilton, who took the stand as an expert witness, said: "Burns are a remarkably complex form of injury, especially if the skin is removed and the wound is essentially exposed."
"Overall, these burns, these scalds, have produced a risk of infection that has spread through the body.
"Ultimately, that was too much for the body to cope with, and the heart and lungs failed."
He added the distribution of scalding "would have been consistent with Andrea sitting in the bath water."
Mr Bernard told officers that the defendant’s treatment of him “was not as it seemed at the time” and that Andrea’s immersion in the bath was not accidental, prosecutor Kerry Broome said.
The prosecution alleged that Nix’s actions were “serious, violent, cruel, degrading and unacceptable forms of punishment – even by those standards of the late 1970s”.
Nix was in a relationship with the children’s father, also named Desmond Bernard, and was in effect their stepmother, Ms Broome told the court.
The defendant, then called Janice Thomas and in her late teens, had the main responsibility for their care as their father was often away working as a chauffeur, jurors heard.
Mr Bernard told police that he and Andrea were rude to Nix when they first met her, which Ms Broome said may be unsurprising given they were young and their parents had recently separated.
Their father “unsurprisingly and unremarkably” told them off, she added.
However, it is alleged that the next day Nix severely beat them both while their father was at work.
“This was the start of a cycle of violence, which left the children in extreme fear and terror of Janice: if the children did something Janice perceived as wrong, she would wait until their father was not around and then punish them,” Ms Broome said.
She added: “She would tell them to go and get one of their father’s belts, she would double it up, and she would beat them both on the arms and legs.
“The beatings didn’t happen daily, but at least once or twice a week.”
Mr Bernard’s allegations as an adult included that Nix forced the two children to have a cold bath as a punishment not long before Andrea’s death, jurors were told.
The prosecution claim this is significant because it demonstrates Nix reprimanded the children using baths at an abnormal temperature.
Mr Bernard has also claimed she hit him on the arm with a pot which left a bruise, the court was told.
On another occasion he did not clean the cat’s bowl before feeding it and Nix said “she needed him to see what it was like to eat cat food out of a dirty bowl, and made him eat cat food”, it was alleged.
The defendant also allegedly burned the boy’s hand with a cigarette, and once drew blood by biting his hand for eating chocolate in the fridge, jurors heard.
Ms Broome told jurors: “Desmond says Andrea received regular beatings from Janice, and was also hit with the belt, but it was him who ‘got the worst of it’.
“He did not see her being beaten around the head or with any other objects, and she wasn’t burnt by the cigarette.”
Nix’s mother told her to “stop beating the children so much”, according to Mr Bernard, the court heard.
Silver-haired Nix appeared in court wearing a blue jacket and trousers, a beige blouse, and glasses.