Woman accused of abusing boys at Halifax care home denies sexual interest in children
Linda Brunning, 66, is charged with restraining one boy while he was sexually assaulted by her boss Malcolm Phillips
A former children's home deputy manager accused of abusing two boys has denied ever having a sexual interest in children.
Linda Brunning, 66, is charged with restraining one boy while he was sexually assaulted by her boss Malcolm Phillips, and indecently assaulting another while drying him after a shower.
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 12 sexual offences against six victims, four female and two male, between 1976 and 1994.
Brunning is charged with two counts of aiding and abetting indecent assault and two of aiding and abetting buggery against one boy, and one count of indecent assault on another boy.
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.
Starting her evidence on Thursday, Brunning denied having a sexual interest in children, and answered "never" when asked if she had gained any sexual pleasure from physical contact with any of the children at Skircoat Lodge.
Asked by her barrister Kitty Colley if she had done any of the things alleged by the prosecution, Brunning replied: "No."
Both Phillips and Brunning are accused of indecently assaulting one complainant - a 14-year-old boy sent to Skircoat Lodge because his mother could not cope with him running away - while drying him after a shower on at least two occasions.
Asked if she had ever touched the boy sexually, Brunning said: "Never."
Brunning is also accused of restraining another complainant, a boy aged between nine and 13, while Phillips sexually assaulted him in the bathroom, on numerous occasions.
Prosecutors say the boy started to run away from the home because of the abuse he suffered from Phillips and Brunning, but was taken back every time and punished by the two defendants, who allegedly dunked him in a bath of cold water.
Asked if she ever held the boy down while he was being sexually abused by Phillips, Brunning said: "No."
Brunning said she started working at Skircoat Lodge as a residential social worker in 1978, and met Phillips when he interviewed her.
She told the court: "He came across as being charming, knowledgeable, seemed to know what he was talking about and seemed to me to have a good understanding of the nature of the place."
The court heard Brunning described herself as a "naive" 19-year-old when she started working at the home, and the children as "damaged".
She said: "Generally the children's backgrounds were just terrible. They had come from broken homes, damaged homes.
"They had been abused by parents - just awful, terrible backgrounds.
"When your background's been nothing like that, it comes as a shock to think that that happens and people live like that, and you feel terrible.
"You want to make it better for them."
Brunning said she "did the best she could" with the children, and tried to put them all in age groups to spend time with each other in the evenings.
She said children at the home were always given presents and cake for their birthdays, and she would sometimes take them on trips to Northumberland.
Brunning denied prosecution claims that she sat on children, but said she would "straddle" them to restrain them, adding: "You would kneel over the top of them so your legs were at their hips. You could hold their arms at the same time to stop them thrashing around and hurting people."
She said she would sometimes show affection to children by putting an arm round them.
Phillips, of Tyseley in 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.