The brother of a five-year-old girl allegedly killed by her stepmother in a scalding bath tearfully told jurors he called her death an accident because he wanted the beatings to stop.
Charges and Background
Janice Nix, 67, is charged with the manslaughter of Andrea Bernard by punishing her with a hot bath in Thornton Heath, south London, in 1978. Andrea's death was treated as an accident until her older brother Desmond Bernard went to police in 2022, Isleworth Crown Court heard.
Brother's Testimony
Giving evidence on Thursday, Mr Bernard, now 56, said Nix regularly beat the children, even for not folding their clothes 'to her standards'. He described Nix as physically 'strong' with a 'heavy-set build'. Mr Bernard alleged Nix beat him with a belt, burned him with a cigarette, bit him, and made him eat cat food, all while he was seven to nine years old.
Jurors heard that on June 6, 1978, Nix was 'furious' after Andrea ignored instructions not to leave the house and to help clean instead. Mr Bernard said his sister told him as they walked home from school that she was in trouble and wanted to go to their grandmother's house. He went on: 'I said no, I wasn't sure how we would get there because we would have to take the bus and because I wasn't in trouble I wasn't concerned enough.'
The Incident
When they arrived home, Nix shouted at Andrea in an 'extremely loud' voice before beating her, the court heard. Mr Bernard said he later heard the bath running. He went on: 'I could hear Janice shouting "get in the bath" and I could hear Andrea saying "the bath is too hot mummy". 'I could hear Janice shouting "get in the bath, get in the bath" and then I heard screaming and splashing. 'Then I heard the screaming stopped and I could hear Janice calling Andrea to 'wake up, wake up'.' Asked by prosecutor Kerry Broome how Nix sounded, he replied: 'She sounded scared.'
Mr Bernard said he then entered the bathroom and saw Nix cradling Andrea, who was 'limp' and wrapped in a towel. He added: 'I could see skin falling off her.' Asked whether Nix said anything, Mr Bernard replied: 'She asked me to say it was an accident… and to say that we were in the garden when it happened and that she would never beat me again.'
Why He Lied
Asked what he did, he said: 'I lied, I told everyone that story.' Asked why, Mr Bernard replied: 'Because I didn't feel protected, I just wanted it to stop.' He told jurors he lived in 'constant fear' of Nix's beatings and did not tell anyone because he feared being 'punished more'. Mr Bernard said the account he gave to the coroner at Andrea's inquest was 'just a story' fed to him by Nix.
Nix, then called Janice Thomas, had been in a relationship with the children's father, also named Desmond Bernard, and was in effect their stepmother, the court heard. Mr Bernard recalled that when he and Andrea first met Nix, they were 'very rude' to her, telling her she 'wasn't our mother'. He said Andrea also hit her with a small tennis racket. Asked why, he replied: 'I guess we were confused about the situation and here's this person that we don't even know in our house.'
Mr Bernard said the next day Nix beat both children by 'slapping' them after their father had left the house. He added: 'It was hard, harder than I had ever felt before.' Asked what Nix told them, he replied: 'That she wasn't going to stand for that, and there was nothing we could do, and if we were to tell our dad we would get it worse.'
Why He Came Forward
Speaking about why he decided to tell others about his sister's death, Mr Bernard said: 'I couldn't carry on dealing with it, so that's what I did.' He added: 'To place this burden where it should go.' Nix, of Clapham, south London, denies manslaughter and cruelty to Mr Bernard between October 1975 and June 1978. The trial continues.
