United Kingdom: Antiguan woman to be sentenced nearly 48 years after girl’s death

United Kingdom: A 67-year-old Antiguan woman, Janice Nix, is set to be sentenced nearly 48 years after the death of a five-year-old girl, after being found guilty of manslaughter and child cruelty at Isleworth Crown Court in London on May 26, 2026.

According to reports, Nix appeared in court on May 26, 2026, where a jury found her guilty and remanded her in custody until her next hearing for sentencing.

The woman was found guilty for the death of five-year-old girl Andrea Bernard, who died in July 1978, after suffering extensive burns from a scalding bath.

The charges stem from the  incident that took place on June 6, 1978, when the woman acting as the step mother of the girl at that time, allegedly forced the child into extremely hot water as a punishment after she disobeyed her instructions to clean the house.

Following the punishment, the child sustained severe burn injuries to more than half of her body and was then hospitalised in the hospital where she succumbed to her injuries on July 13, 1978, almost five weeks after being hospitalized. 

The incident instantly drew attention and the woman was questioned by the officers but later got released after the officers ruled the girl's death as accidental. The girl’s then eight-year-old brother also lied to the officers that her death was a mishap under the threat given by the woman. 

The female was never arrested nor charged for the death of the five-year-old girl back then but the case took a big turn in September, 2022, when the brother of the girl Desmond Bernard, went to the Metropolitan Police's Cold Case Homicide Team and asked them to reopen the case, revealing that Nix had forced him to lie to authorities nearly 50 years prior about his sister’s death. 

Reacting to his urge to reopen the case, the officers launched their investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident despite major challenges, including the destruction of medical records and the deaths of both the original pathologist and coroner involved in the 1978 inquiry.

The prosecution then checked the original old records along with the statements of the witnesses to piece together the events which resulted in the death of the girl. The officers also conducted a fresh pathology test which confirmed the water temperature caused severe burns to the child within seconds which resulted in her death.

Following a long cold-case investigation, the female Nix was arrested decades later on February 18, 2025, at Heathrow Airport after returning to the UK from Antigua and was formally charged on the same day.