Children’s home boss who abused boys and girls in two-decade ‘regime of fear’ avoids prison

A children's home boss who sexually abused young children in a near two-decade "regime of fear" has avoided prison.

In February, a jury found that Malcolm Phillips committed sexual offences against four girls and two boys between 1976 and 1994.

But the 93-year-old cannot be jailed because of his health - meaning jurors just asked to determine if the facts were true.

Judge Kirstie Watson admitted she had to deliver a sentence of absolute discharge with "great reluctance" due to the horrific nature of his crimes.

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She added: "There will be those who ask 'what is the point?'… [For the victims] this trial process has given them a voice, it has allowed them to speak. They have been listened to."

His assistant at the care home, Linda Brunning, 66, was jailed for 25 years after being found guilty of restraining one boy while Phillips sexually assaulted him and indecently assaulting another young person while drying him in the shower.

The only sentencing options available to judge in a trial-of-the-facts are committal to hospital or a supervision order, the court heard.

Phillips has no mental disorder and since his issues were from physical illness and age-related cognitive decline.

The court heard how Skircoat Lodge Care Home in Halifax, West Yorkshire was run by Phillips like a "prison", according to a former member of staff.

Kelly Lees, 43, who was indecently assaulted by Phillips between the ages of 11 and 12, said he had "abused so many children and practically got away with it".

Waiving away her right to anonymity, she said: "He should have been sent to prison. Prisons are full of shoplifters and begging and victims - women's prisons are full of victims.

"Why is someone who's abused children and been found guilty sitting at home, comfortable? I can’t comprehend it.

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"He had control at Skircoat Lodge and he's still got control now.

"He's abused so many children and practically got away with it. That's not justice."

Victims Angela Radford and Karen Bentham also waived their anonymity and the three comforted each other in court after reading their statements.

Angela Radford, who was indecently assaulted by Phillips after being sent to Skircoat Lodge as a teenager in the late 1970s, said the girls were told to wear nighties to bed “so he could have easy access to us".

Ms Radford said Phillips should "die in prison", adding that despite the "big red 'guilty' stamp over his head", he was still free to live his life.

And Ms Bentham, who was raped twice by Phillips as a teenager, said she was "the one living a life sentence".

One male victim told the court in his statement Skircoat Lodge was a "a horrible and cruel environment with sexual predators".

He added: "I know (Phillips) is a very old man now, but he still needs to be held accountable for what I and others went through as a kid.

"Linda Brunning is a horrible woman and deserves what she gets."

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, of Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, was found guilty of two counts of aiding and abetting indecent assault, two of aiding and abetting buggery and one of indecent assault.

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