Victims of a 93-year-old paedophile children's home manager were left outraged as he walked free after being deemed unfit to stand trial. Malcolm Phillips committed sexual abuse against boys and girls under his care during an 18-year reign of terror at Skircoat Lodge Care Home in Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Court Proceedings
Last year, a jury at Bradford Crown Court found that Phillips had perpetrated sexual offences against six victims – four female and two male – between 1976 and 1994. However, due to his health, he was found unfit to stand trial and could not be imprisoned, leading to a trial-of-facts where jurors were asked to decide whether or not he had committed the alleged acts.
On Monday, Judge Kirstie Watson stated that the only sentence she could impose was an absolute discharge, adding: "I do that with great reluctance given the seriousness of the offences for which you have been convicted."
She said: "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."
The court heard that the only other sentencing options available to a judge following a trial of facts are committal to hospital or a supervision order. A pre-sentence report determined that as Phillips has no mental disorder, and his issues stemmed from physical illness and age-related cognitive decline, he was not suitable for a hospital order and a supervision order would be of "limited practical value".
Accomplice Sentenced
His assistant at Skircoat Lodge, Linda Brunning, 66, who was found guilty of restraining one boy while Phillips sexually assaulted him and indecently assaulting another herself while drying him after a shower, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Victim Impact Statements
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". Ms Lees, who has waived her right to anonymity, told the trial that Phillips abused her after inviting her into his office to do homework and would give her a lollipop afterwards.
Before the sentencing hearing, she told the Press Association she was "furious" upon learning Phillips had been unfit to stand trial. She stated: "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."
Angela Radford, who was indecently assaulted by Phillips after being sent to Skircoat Lodge as a teenager in the late 1970s, revealed that the girls were instructed to wear nighties to bed "so he could have easy access to us". She told the court: "When I received the verdict I felt, 'finally I am believed'. However, what will happen to Malcolm Phillips? He's abused children through the decades and yet he's walking free. I think he should die in prison ... He may have a big red 'guilty' stamp over his head but he's still free to live his life."
The fourth female victim, who was sexually assaulted by Phillips on at least 10 occasions while she was in bed, said he "would take it in turns as to who he was going to abuse that night". Her statement read: "Malcolm Phillips, I believe, should go to prison for what he's done. He should not be able to die with his family around him when I can't even see my brother."
Ms Bentham, who was raped twice by Phillips as a teenager, said she was "the one living a life sentence," adding that the decision on his fitness meant: "I had to speak about the most painful parts of my life in a court where the man responsible was not present."
One of the male victims, who was indecently assaulted by Phillips and Brunning while being dried after a shower on at least two occasions, described Skircoat Lodge as "a horrible and cruel environment with sexual predators". His statement read: "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."
The other male complainant, who was restrained by Brunning while Phillips sexually assaulted him on numerous occasions, said: "Every day I relive it. I'm frightened to go to bed and struggle to be on my own."
Background
This marks Phillips's second prosecution over abuse at Skircoat Lodge after he was imprisoned in 2001 for sexual offences against eight female residents. Prosecutors stated that abuse at the home went "unfettered and unreported against a backdrop of legitimacy" for nearly 20 years. A statement from a former staff member read during the trial claimed that Phillips and Brunning ran the home "more like a prison".
The jury found Phillips, from Tyseley, Birmingham, guilty of 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, from Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, was convicted of two counts of aiding and abetting indecent assault, two of aiding and abetting buggery and one of indecent assault.
