A 93-year-old former children’s care home manager has been convicted of a string of historic sex crimes against vulnerable girls and boys over two decades – more than 20 years after he was jailed for abuse at the same home.
Malcolm Phillips used his power and ‘unfettered access’ to children who had been sent to Skircoat Lodge Care Home in Halifax, West Yorks, to abuse them on a ‘daily’ basis.
The victims, as young as 11, had often been sent to the home ‘for their own safety’ because of difficult family circumstances or their parents could not cope. Those at the home were aged between four and 16.
Many children attempted to run away when they learned of sexual and physical abuse committed by Phillips and his deputy, Linda Brunning, 66, but were simply returned by police who branded them ‘troublemakers’.
Phillips, of Birmingham, was deemed unfit to stand trial so the jury was asked to determine whether or not he committed the acts alleged.
After a jury at Bradford Crown Court deliberated for more than 25 hours, Phillips was convicted of multiple sexual offences against six victims – four female and one male – between 1976 and 1994.
Brunning was found guilty of restraining one boy while Phillips sexually assaulted him and indecently assaulting another herself while drying him after a shower.
The pair’s trial heard that Skircoat was run ‘like a prison’ with young children regularly physically restrained, beaten and even deprived of food for minor indiscretions.
Malcolm Phillips, 93, of Birmingham, was ruled unfit to stand trial but was convicted of all charges today in a ‘trial of the facts’
His deputy of 16 years, Linda Brunning, was also convicted of all charges she faced
Other staff who attempted to raise concerns noted there was a ‘culture of fear’ and they would instead ‘walk on eggshells’ around Phillips who ‘let no-one challenge his authority’.
Brunning was described by prosecutors as ‘a large and domineering woman who took pleasure in physically hurting and humiliating children’.
‘At times she would perform sexual assaults on them and at her worst, the prosecution says she facilitated the abuse by Malcolm Phillips upon a small defenceless child,’ prosecutor Michelle Colborne KC said.
Phillips was previously jailed for seven years in 2001 for sexual offences against eight children at Skircoat Lodge.
His former colleague Andrew Shalders, who has since died, was sentenced to 15 years for 21 assaults on boys.
Jurors heard how female complainants, who were told to wear nighties for bed, described Phillips, who lived on the premises, coming into their bedrooms at night and indecently assaulting them.
Others told how Phillips would pick his ‘favourites’ and would invite them into his office on the pretense of help with homework and molest them.
In an earlier statement, Phillips blamed the allegations on a ‘high-profile media campaign to discredit me’.
Brunning, of Sowerby Bridge, wept as the verdicts were read out.
Judge Kirstie Watson said she would ‘inevitably’ receive a jail term when the pair are sentenced in April.
After the convictions, 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.’
