Girl, 5, sobbed ‘this is too hot mummy’ before she was ‘forced into scalding bath and killed by abusive stepmum’
A YOUNG girl sobbed “this is too hot mummy” before she was forced into a tub of scalding water that killed her, a court heard.
Janice Nix allegedly waged a campaign of harassment “that went beyond chastisement even by contemporary standards”.
Jurors heard Nix dished out cruel punishments to Andrea Bernard and her eight-year-old brother Desmond Bernard after she got in a relationship with their dad aged 17.
This included slapping them over the head, beating the siblings with belts and biting Desmond’s arm until it bled for eating chocolate out of the fridge, Isleworth Crown Court heard.
On June 6, 1978, Nix allegedly forced Andrea into a scalding hot bath at their home in Thornton Heath, South London.
Desmond told the court today he heard her saying “the bath is too hot, mummy” before she began “screaming and splashing”.
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He said this lasted a “couple of minutes”, adding: “Then I heard the screaming stopping. I could hear Janice telling Andrea to wake up.
“She was holding Andrea in a towel, and Andrea was limp. She was by the bathtub, she was cradling her.
“Her eyes were closed, sort of fluttering.”
Desmond wept as he told jurors he could see his baby sister’s “skin falling off”.
He also claimed his “panicked” stepmum told him if he called it an “accident”, she would “never beat me again”.
Desmond added: “I lied, I told everyone that story.”
Jurors heard Andrea tragically died in a specialist burns unit five weeks later.
Kerry Broome, prosecuting, said: “The allegations in this case relate back quite some time now to the late 1970s.
“Those events culminated in the death of Andrea Bernard.
“Between 1976-78 the defendant was effectively the two children’s stepmother and she was left in charge of looking after them.
“There is no dispute that, on 6 June 1978, Andrea was partially immersed in a scalding bath, and that the injuries Andrea sustained as a result caused her death some six weeks later, as a result of the well-known consequences of the extensive burn injuries she sustained.”
Jurors were told her death was not treated as suspicious at the time and police only began investigating in 2022 after Desmond spoke out.
The children’s mum, Angela Bernard, went to prison in 1975 – leaving Andrea and Desmond under the care of their father, Desmond Bernard senior.
Bernard then met Janice Nix, then aged 17 and called Janice Thomas, it was said.
After Angela was released from jail, she and Bernard split up and Nix moved into the family home.
Desmond told police in 2022 that he and his sister told Nix “you’re not my mother” when they first met her.
Ms Broome added: “This was the start of a cycle of violence, which left the children terrified and in extreme fear of Janice.
“If the children did something Janice perceived as wrong, she would wait until their father was not around and then punish them.
“Desmond describes Janice as heavy-set and very strong.
“The punishments progressed from slapping around the head, and smacking, to being beaten with objects.
“She would tell them to go and get one of their father’s belts, she would double it up, and beat them both on the arms and legs.
“The beatings didn’t happen daily, but at least once or twice a week.”
Desmond told police that Nix “made him eat cat food” when he failed to clean the cat’s bowl and burned his hand with a cigarette, the court heard.
He also claimed she bit him on the hand so hard she drew blood after he ate some chocolate from the fridge.
Desmond also allegedly recalled being forced to have a cold bath as a punishment “not long before Andrea’s death”.
On the day Andrea was scalded, both children returned from school to Nix as their dad was at work.
At the time, the stepmum told police she asked them to have a bath when they got home from school because they were dirty.
She claimed around 20 minutes later, Andrea came outside into the garden saying: “Mummy, my legs are itching.”
Nix told police she noticed they were “bright pink” and “peeling” and said the youngster fainted when she picked her up.
Desmond gave police a similar account at the time, but in 2022 he said that had not been a true account of what happened, jurors heard.
Andrea was treated in hospital for almost six weeks and needed skin grafts.
She suffered from infections in her unhealed burn wounds and died of a heart attack caused by sepsis in hospital on July 13, 1978.
Nix denies manslaughter and child cruelty to Desmond.
The trial, which is expected to last three weeks, continues.
SOURCE: THESUN
