Boy told to lie about sister's death, jury hears

A woman accused of killing a five-year-old girl is alleged to have promised the child's brother she would stop beating him if he said the death was an accident.

Janice Nix, 66, was charged in February 2025 with the manslaughter of Andrea Bernard, who died in hospital about a month after being scalded in a bath at a home in Thornton Heath on 6 June 1978.

Nix, from Clapham, denies manslaughter and cruelty towards Andrea's brother, Desmond, when he was aged between seven and nine.

Isleworth Crown Court heard at the opening of the trial how Nix allegedly subjected her partner's children to "serious, violent, cruel, degrading and unacceptable forms of punishment".

• Warning: The following court evidence contains distressing information

Prosecutor Kerry Broome said Nix gave a "completely different" account during a police interview after Desmond contacted officers in September 2022, compared with the version she gave to the coroner in 1978.

Nix allegedly told the original inquest that Andrea was sent upstairs to have a bath after school and later returned complaining of itchy legs, with skin that appeared red and peeling.

She said Andrea later fainted and was taken to hospital, while Broome claims she told police decades later that she had heard the child screaming and lifted her from the bath with severe burns.

Bernard told police that Andrea had "been blamed for something" the night before the fatal bath and that Nix had forbidden her from going to school, instead making her clean the house.

He later discovered that his sister had attended school, but said that when they returned home Nix was "fuming" and beat Andrea.

The prosecution said Bernard recalled Nix later shouting at Andrea to get into the bath, before hearing cries of "it's hot, it's hot".

He said Andrea "would not stop screaming – I can't remember how long it went on for, but then it just stopped".

Bernard said he next saw his sister limp and unconscious, being cradled by Nix in a towel.

He told police that Nix instructed him to say it had been an accident and that Andrea had fallen into the bath.

"She promised never to hit him again if he said that, so that is what he did: he told everyone it was an accident, and Janice never hit him again."

Nix was in her late teens at the time of the allegations and had primary responsibility for caring for the children and was in effect their stepmother as their father was often away working as a chauffeur, the court heard.

The prosecution claimed Nix beat the children badly during this period in what was described as "a cycle of violence".

Broome said that if the children did something Nix perceived as wrong, she would wait until their father, also named Desmond Bernard, was not around before punishing them.

Broome told the court: "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 jurors heard that while the beatings did not happen every day, they were alleged to have taken place at least once or twice a week.

Bernard also claimed that he and his sister had been forced to take a cold bath as punishment not long before Andrea's death.

Other punishments were said to have included forcing him to eat cat food out of a dirty bowl after he failed to clean it, burning him with cigarettes and biting him.

Broome told jurors that while Andrea received regular beatings from Nix, Desmond "got the worst of it".

Nix claims that Bernard had made false allegations because he felt short‑changed by his father's inheritance.

She told officers: "Andrea died as a result of a tragic accident caused by a malfunctioning boiler which overheated the water used for the bath."

The trial continues.

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