Overview
- - The trial opened Tuesday at Isleworth Crown Court, where Janice Nix, 67, pleaded not guilty to manslaughter and a child-cruelty charge.
- - Prosecutors say five-year-old Andrea Bernard was forced into a scalding bath on June 6, 1978 in Thornton Heath and died about six weeks later from burn complications.
- - The Crown alleges a cycle of violent punishment of Andrea and her brother, including belt beatings, cold baths, a cigarette burn, biting, and making the boy eat cat food, with the cruelty charge spanning October 1975 to June 6, 1978.
- - The defense says the scalding was a terrible accident and rejects claims that Nix assaulted or ill-treated the children.
- - The case was revived after Andrea’s brother contacted police in September 2022 with a new account, challenging a 1978 inquest that recorded an accidental death from cardiac arrest, septicaemia, and burns.