A stepmother accused of killing a five-year-old girl by burning her in a hot bath in 1978 had wrought a “cycle of violence” against the child and her young brother, a court has heard.
Janice Nix, 67, has pleaded not guilty to manslaughter for allegedly killing Andrea Bernard by forcing her into the hot bath in Thornton Heath, south London, on June 6th, 1978.
The defendant, of Clapham, south London, has also denied cruelty to Andrea’s brother Desmond Bernard between October 1st, 1975, and June 6th, 1978, when he was seven to nine years old.
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.
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, 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.
Bernard told police that he and Andrea were rude to Nix when they first met her, which 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,” 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.”
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.
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.
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 Bernard, the court heard.
Silver-haired Nix appeared in court wearing a blue jacket and trousers, a beige blouse, and glasses.
