Children's home manager abused vulnerable boys and girls in 18 year 'regime of fear'

A children's home manager sexually abused girls and boys in his care during an 18-year "regime of fear", a court has found.

Malcolm Phillips exploited his "unfettered access" to abuse vulnerable children at Skircoat Lodge Care Home in Halifax, West Yorkshire.

Between 1976 and 1994, he committed sexual offences against four girls and two boys, using them "for his own sexual gratification", the jury found.

Now 93 years old, he was found unfit to stand trial, so instead a trial-of-facts was held at Bradford Crown Court to determine whether or not he had committed the acts alleged.

Such trials cannot pass a guilty verdict, but his assistant, Linda Brunning, has been found guilty of indecent assault, and aiding and abetting Phillips in his crimes.

The court heard that Phillips controlled Skircoat Lodge and, with Brunning's help, ran the place "more like a prison", according to a former member of staff.

Prosecutor Michelle Colborne KC said the pair carefully picked their victims, using the children's files to identify who could be manipulated.

"They told them no-one cared about them, they told them no-one would believe them," Ms Colborne said.

"If they ran away from Skircoat Lodge, they were taken straight back by police, accused of being troublemakers."

In this way, the court heard, abuse at the home went on "unreported against a backdrop of legitimacy" for almost 20 years.

The jury was told that Phillips lived in a flat leading to the girls' bedrooms, giving him "unfettered access" to his victims.

"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," Ms Colborne said.

The prosecutor described Brunning as "a large and domineering woman who took pleasure in physically hurting and humiliating children".

She continued: "At times she would perform sexual assaults on them, at her worst she facilitated the abuse by Malcolm Phillips upon a small defenceless child."

Brunning was found guilty of restraining one boy while Phillips sexually assaulted him and indecently assaulting another herself while drying him after a shower.

Phillips' "regime of fear" only came to an end when he was suspended in 1994 after an investigation, the court heard. Skircoat Lodge closed two years later.

He was subsequently jailed in 2001 for sexual offences against eight female residents.

In a 2019 police statement, he branded his victims liars and said he had been the victim of a high-profile media campaign to discredit him.

But the jury found Phillips, of Tyseley, Birmingham, had committed three counts of indecent assault, two of indecency with a child, three of indecent assault on a male person, two of buggery, and two of rape. He was not in court.

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Brunning, of Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, denied having a sexual interest in children and said she felt "sick" when told about the allegations against her.

But she was found guilty of two counts of aiding and abetting indecent assault, two of aiding and abetting buggery, and one of indecent assault.

She put her head into her hands and sobbed as the verdicts were read out.

She has been remanded into custody until 27 April , when Judge Kirstie Watson said she would "inevitably" receive a jail sentence

The court heard that a medical report would be prepared for Phillips, but police said there were "only a limited number of orders available to a judge" in a trial-of-facts.

These include committal to hospital, a supervision order, or an absolute discharge.

(c) Sky News 2026: Children's home manager abused vulnerable boys and girls in 18 year 'regime of fear'