Halifax care home where children allegedly abused 'run like prison', court told
Jurors heard allegations of one boy being pulled through a food hatch by his shirt, and another being forced to eat his dinner off the floor
Last updated 21st Jan 2026
A care home manager and his assistant accused of sexually abusing children in their care "ran the home like a prison," a former staff member said.
Jurors heard allegations of one boy being pulled through a food hatch by his shirt, and another being forced to eat his dinner off the floor during Malcolm Phillips' two-decade "regime of fear" at Skircoat Lodge Care Home in Halifax, West Yorkshire.
Former workers at the home described seeing Phillips slap and manhandle children, while his second-in-command Linda Brunning was described as a "bully" who would sit on the children and "deliberately humiliate" them.
Prosecutors say abuse went "unfettered and unreported against a backdrop of legitimacy" for almost 20 years at Skircoat Lodge Care Home in Halifax.
Phillips, 92, is accused of sexual offences against six victims, four female and two male, between 1976 and 1994.
Linda Brunning, 66, is accused of helping him abuse children at the home, and indecently assaulting one boy herself.
A trial for Brunning, and a trial of facts for Phillips, who has been deemed unfit to stand trial, is taking place at Bradford Crown Court.
On Wednesday, jurors heard statements from former members of staff at the home.
Jacqueline Tetley, a support teacher who said she left in 1990 because she was frustrated by the way children were treated, described Phillips as an outwardly "intelligent and pleasant man" who became "a very strict and dominant person who ruled by fear" when no visitors were around.
Ms Tetley said he "intimidated residents and staff alike" and that many of the children were in fear of him.
A statement read in court said: "I have seen Malcolm Phillips manhandling children on many occasions, I have seen him 'wall children up' by grabbing them and pushing them against a wall. He would sometimes slap them around the face."
Ms Tetley said she saw Phillips attack a girl who had run away from Skircoat Lodge and been returned by police.
She said Phillips slapped the girl, forced her arm up behind her back and pushed her against a wardrobe door, leaving her crying and with a bloodied nose.
Ms Tetley said Brunning was "a very large lady who used her size to her advantage" by sitting on the children.
"She was a bully to the children, manhandled them regularly, she would often push them against the wall and slap them around the face," she said.
The statement said Brunning was "particularly strict at night" and would make children stand on the landing in their bare feet, sometimes until the early hours, if she heard the slightest noise from the bedrooms.
Ms Tetley said Brunning was once suspended after an incident when she made a boy eat his tea off the floor, and would sometimes punch the children or block their home visits.
"I would say children were treated cruelly at Skircoat Lodge, particularly by Malcolm Phillips and Linda Brunning. They ran the home more like a prison," she said.
A statement from another former member of staff described seeing Phillips pulling a boy through a food hatch by his shirt.
Phillips, of Tyseley, Birmingham, is charged with 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, is charged with one count of indecent assault on a male person, two counts of aiding and abetting indecent assault and two of aiding and abetting buggery.
The trial continues.