00:00A jury at Bradford Crown Court has found that a Birmingham man carried out sexual abuse against children at a
00:07residential home in Halifax over nearly two decades.
00:11Malcolm Phillips, aged 93, was deemed unfit to stand trial, so the case proceeded as a trial of facts.
00:19Jurors found he abused four girls and two boys at Skircourt Lodge between 1976 and 1994 while he was in
00:28charge of the home.
00:30The court heard he lived on site from the time it opened and had unrestricted access throughout the building, including
00:37two children's bedrooms, and used his authority to isolate and control specific children over many years.
00:45Prosecutors said some children were deprived of food and pocket money and were threatened with losing contact with their families
00:51if they spoke out.
00:52His assistant, Linda Brunning, aged 66, was found guilty of indecently assaulting one boy and helping Phillips abuse another during
01:01the 1980s and 1990s.
01:04She is due to be sentenced in April and was told she faces a substantial jail term.
01:09Phillips was previously convicted in 2001 of indecently assaulting eight girls at the same home and was jailed for seven
01:17years.
01:18Following the verdicts, police said victims had endured abuse by those trusted to care for them, while the NSPCC and
01:26Calderdale Council apologised for the harm caused.
01:29Christ verso top proREτούan
Comments