Woman found guilty of killing five-year-old girl in scalding bath

WorldFamily & Parenting
26 May 2026 • 9:15 PM MYT
The Independent
The Independent

The world’s most free-thinking newspaper

Woman found guilty of killing five-year-old girl in scalding bath

  • Janice Nix, 67, has been found guilty of killing a five-year-old girl, Andrea Bernard, whom she scalded in a hot bath as punishment in 1978.
  • Andrea's death in Thornton Heath, south London, was initially treated as an accident until her older brother, Desmond Bernard, approached police in 2022 with a new account.
  • Nix, from Clapham, south London, was also found guilty of cruelty to Mr Bernard between October 1975 and June 1978, when he was aged seven to nine.
  • Desmond Bernard, now 56, told jurors he initially described his sister's death as an accident as he wanted Nix to stop beating him.
  • The court heard that Nix, previously Janice Thomas, was in a relationship with the children’s father and was in effect their stepmother.

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