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A care worker has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for assisting her former boss in the sexual abuse of children in their care. Malcolm Phillips, who ran the Skircoat Lodge children’s home in Halifax, was responsible for abusing four girls and two boys over an 18-year period, from 1976 to 1994. Described as a “master manipulator,” Phillips was recognized as having created a climate of intimidation within the home. However, due to his advanced age and ill health, the 93-year-old was deemed unfit to stand trial and thus avoided prison time.
Phillips faced charges including rape, indecent assault, and indecency with a child, but the court proceeded with a trial of facts—a process used when a defendant cannot undergo a normal criminal trial. The jury was tasked with determining whether Phillips carried out the alleged offenses, though they could not deliver a guilty verdict. After the trial concluded, the jury found that Phillips committed the offenses, resulting in an absolute discharge alongside the imposition of a sexual harm prevention order. Throughout the proceedings, Phillips followed the case via video link from his home in Birmingham.
Linda Brunning, Phillips’ assistant at Skircoat Lodge, was convicted for her role in the abuse and received a custodial sentence of 25 years. She was found guilty of indecently assaulting a boy and facilitating Phillips’ sexual abuse of another boy during the 1980s and 1990s. Brunning, aged 67 and from Sowerby Bridge, Calderdale, was described in court as a “large, domineering woman who took pleasure in humiliating and hurting children.” Despite her denials throughout the trial, her defense counsel acknowledged that she “now respects those verdicts.”
Judge Kirstie Watson condemned both Phillips and Brunning for their “vile abuse” of vulnerable children, highlighting Phillips as the dominant figure who “cultivated a culture of fear” at the home. The jury was told how Phillips exploited his authority over two decades to isolate children and abuse them sexually. After Phillips was removed from Skircoat Lodge in 1994 during an investigation, Brunning continued working with vulnerable adults, with no subsequent complaints about her conduct. Previous inquiries into the abuse allegations had also failed to lead to charges until the current trial. Skircoat Lodge, which opened in 1976, accommodated children aged four to 16 under care orders, placed there for their safety, but the victims recounted severe mistreatment, including food deprivation, sleep deprivation, and threats to sever family contact
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