It comes after a children’s home manager used his “unfettered access” to vulnerable youngsters to sexually abuse boys and girls in his care for almost two decades, a jury has found.
Malcolm Phillips used children “for his own sexual gratification” during his 18-year regime of fear at Skircoat Lodge Care Home in Halifax.
On Monday, a jury at Bradford Crown Court found that Phillips had committed sexual offences against six victims between 1976 and 1994.
Phillips, who is now 93 years old, was found unfit to stand trial, so a trial-of-facts was held in which jurors were asked to determine whether or not he had committed the acts alleged.
His assistant, Linda Brunning, 66, of Sowerby Bridge, was found guilty of restraining one boy while Phillips sexually assaulted him and indecently assaulting another herself while drying him after a shower.
Brunning put her head in her hands and started to sob when the verdicts were read out.
Phillips was not in court.
Pair ran home ‘more like a prison’
Prosecutors said abuse at the home went “unfettered and unreported against a backdrop of legitimacy” for almost 20 years.
A statement from a former member of staff read during the trial said Phillips and Brunning ran the home “more like a prison”.
Jurors heard how female complainants, who were told to wear nighties for bed, described Phillips coming into their bedrooms at night and indecently assaulting them.
Opening the trial in January, prosecutor Michelle Colborne KC said Phillips controlled Skircoat Lodge and lived in a flat leading to the girls’ bedrooms, which gave him “unfettered access”.
“During the course of almost two decades, Malcolm Phillips used his power to isolate specific children to use for his sexual gratification, and he wasn’t the only one,” she told jurors.
The court heard Brunning, who worked alongside Phillips for 16 years, was also “adept at isolating and manipulating children”.
Ms Colborne said Brunning was “a large and domineering woman who took pleasure in physically hurting and humiliating children”.
“At times she would perform sexual assaults on them, at her worst she facilitated the abuse by Malcolm Phillips upon a small defenceless child,” she told the court.
The care home (Image: West Yorkshire Police)
Pair created a regime of fear and violence
The convictions follow investigations carried out by West Yorkshire Police into abuse, both physical and sexual, which occurred from the 1970s to the 1990s at Skircoat Lodge Children’s Home in Halifax.
Philips was its manager and principal from 1976 with Brunning as his assistant from 1978.
Over two decades, the pair created a regime of fear and violence, avoiding detection for their abhorrent crimes because no one dared speak out against them.
After staff started to speak up, Calderdale Social Services asked the NSPCC to investigate the practices at the home in 1994 resulting in Phillips being suspended and Brunning being moved.
The home closed in 1996 and two years later West Yorkshire Police launched an investigation resulting in a trial which led to three men being convicted.
This prompted further victim-survivors to come forward reporting sexual offences and physical abuse while at Skircoat Lodge.
Investigation ends in trial
An investigation launched in 2018 focused on both male and female victims who reported offences taking place between 1976 and 1994.
In a statement to police in 2019, Phillips said the victims were liars and that he had been the victim of a high-profile media campaign to discredit him.
Giving evidence during the trial, Brunning denied having a sexual interest in children and said she felt “sick” when she was told about the allegations against her.
The jury found Phillips, of Tyseley, Birmingham, had committed three counts of indecent assault, two counts of indecency with a child, three counts of indecent assault on a male person, two counts of buggery and two of rape.
Brunning was found guilty of two counts of aiding and abetting indecent assault, two of aiding and abetting buggery and one of indecent assault.
Brunning was remanded in custody until sentencing on April 27, when Judge Kirstie Watson said she would “inevitably” receive a jail sentence
Victims voices have ‘finally been heard’
Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Claire Smith of Calderdale District Police, said: “We would like to thank the victim-survivors for the tremendous bravery they have shown in coming forward and sharing their experiences with the police, leading to this conviction.
“They endured abhorrent abuse at the hands of people who were entrusted and paid to care for them, in a place that should have been safe.
“As children, they were made to feel powerless, told that no one would believe them and that speaking up would put them in danger.
“After years of carrying that fear, their voices have finally been heard.”