HE RAPED CHILDREN FOR 18 YEARS AND WATCHED HIS SENTENCING FROM AN ARMCHAIR
Malcolm Phillips ran Skircoat Lodge care home in Halifax. Between 1976 and 1994 he sexually abused four girls and two boys in his care. He lived in a flat that led directly to the girls' bedrooms. The jury confirmed every bit of it.
On Monday he watched his sentencing from home via video link. Ninety-three years old, sitting in an armchair, occasionally leaning his head back. The judge gave him an absolute discharge.
That is the legal term for nothing.
No prison. No hospital. Just a sexual harm prevention order handed to a man who has already spent nearly two decades preying on the most vulnerable children the state could
That must have been a tremendous comfort to the survivors in the room.
His assistant Linda Brunning got 25 years. She held a child down while Phillips abused him. She gets a quarter century. He gets home in time for dinner.
Phillips was first jailed in 2001 for abusing eight female residents at the same home. They did not restart their investigation into further victims until 2017. Sixteen years of delay. When Operation Henway finally concluded, the legal system produced an absolute discharge.
Victim Kelly Lees was indecently assaulted by Phillips between the ages of 11 and 12. She said it is not justice. Angela Radford said he should die in prison.
Karen Bentham, who was raped twice as a teenager at Skircoat Lodge, said she is the one living a life sentence.
The children at Skircoat Lodge were told no one cared about them and no one would believe them. If they ran away, police brought them straight back and labelled them troublemakers.
Fifty years later
@Calderdale Council, which was responsible for the home, issued a statement saying it was "deeply sorry." The investigation that led to Monday's hearing only started because survivors campaigned for years to be heard.
The system that failed these children in the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s managed to fail them one final time on Monday.
Sources:
@Calderdale @WestYorksPolice @itvcalendar @SkyNews @BBCNews