Paedophile children's home manager, 93, avoids jail despite nearly two decades of abuse as 'furious' victims break silence
A children’s home manager and paedophile has avoided jail despite abusing girls and boys in his care for nearly two decades.
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His victims vented their fury as the 93-year-old walked free.
Malcolm Phillips sexually abused at least four boys and two girls in his care at Skircoat Lodge care home in Halifax, West Yorkshire, between 1976 and 1994, a jury found.
But a judge decided he could not be jailed as he was deemed unfit to stand trial due to health reasons.
A jury at Bradford Crown Court found him guilty in a trial of facts, in which jurors had to decide whether he had committed the alleged acts.
Judge Kirstie Watson said she was given no choice but to sentence him to an absolute discharge following the verdict.
“I do that with great reluctance given the seriousness of the offences for which you have been convicted,” she said.
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Three of his victims, including Kelly Lees, Angela Radford and Karen Bentham, waived their anonymity and vented their fury after the paedophile walked free.
Ms Lees, 43, was indecently assaulted by Phillips between the ages of 11 and 12, and said he had “abused so many children and practically got away with it”.
She said before the sentencing hearing she was “furious” to discover Phillips had been deemed unfit to stand trial.
“He should have been sent to prison. Prisons are full of shoplifters and [beggars] 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,” she said.
Ms Bentham, who Phillips raped twice when she was a teenager, said she was “the one living a life sentence”. She said his absence in the trial meant she “had to speak about the most painful parts of my life in a court where the man responsible was not present.”
But Judge Watson said the only other options after a trial of facts are committal to hospital or a supervision order, the court heard.
Phillips was found to have no mental disorders in a pre-sentence report and his health problems were physical and age-related, including cognitive decline.He was deemed unsuitable for a hospital order and it was found a supervision order would have provided “limited practical value”.
Lisa Brunning, 66, his assistant at the care home, was jailed for 25 years after she was found guilty of restraining one boy as Phillips sexually assaulted him, She also indecently assaulted another herself while drying him after a shower, the court heard.
A former member of staff told the trial Phillips and Brunning ran the home “more like a prison” with abuse continuing “unfettered and unreported against a backdrop of legitimacy” for nearly 20 years.
Phillips was previously jailed in 2001 for sexual offences against eight female residents at Skircoat Lodge.
He was found 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.
A jury found Brunning guilty of two counts of aiding and abetting indecent assault, two of aiding and abetting buggery and one of indecent assault.