Updated

Updated · BBC.com · Jun 8

Linda Brunning Jailed 25 Years in Skircoat Lodge Abuse as Malcolm Phillips, 93, Avoids Prison

Updated

Updated · BBC.com · Jun 8

Linda Brunning Jailed 25 Years in Skircoat Lodge Abuse as Malcolm Phillips, 93, Avoids Prison

Q: One abuser jailed for 25 years, the other walks free. What legal loophole allows elderly masterminds to escape prison?

It was not a special exemption for old age, but the law on being unfit to plead. In England and Wales, if a defendant is judged unable to understand the proceedings or properly take part in their defence, the court cannot hold a normal criminal trial. That is what happened with Malcolm Phillips. Because he was ruled unfit to stand trial, the court held a “trial of facts” instead. In that process, a jury decides only whether the person did the acts alleged, not whether they are criminally guilty in the usual sense. If the jury finds the acts proved, the court can impose limited measures such as a hospital order, supervision order, discharge, or protective restrictions like a Sexual Harm Prevention Order. It cannot record a standard criminal conviction or pass an ordinary prison sentence in the same way as after a full trial. That is why Phillips, despite the jury finding he committed the abuse, received an absolute discharge and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order rather than jail. Linda Brunning, by contrast, was fit to stand trial, was convicted in the normal way, and could therefore be sentenced to 25 years in prison. Calling it a “loophole” is emotionally understandable for victims, but legally it is a safeguard designed to prevent people who are not fit to participate in a trial from being convicted through the ordinary process. The result, however, can look starkly unjust in historic abuse cases involving very elderly defendants.

3 articles · Updated · BBC.com · Jun 8

Bradford Crown Court jailed former care worker Linda Brunning, 67, for 25 years after jurors found she assaulted one boy and helped former manager Malcolm Phillips abuse another.
Phillips, 93, received an absolute discharge and a sexual harm prevention order because he was deemed unfit for trial, even though a January trial of facts found he committed sexual and physical offences against six children.
Judge Kirstie Watson said Phillips and Brunning carried out "vile abuse" at Skircoat Lodge in Halifax, where children were deprived of food and sleep, threatened over family visits and taught that nobody would believe them.
Victims Kelly Lees and Karen Bentham said they were angry Phillips would not go to prison, but the verdicts finally brought relief after decades of trauma and silence.
Phillips had already been jailed for seven years in 2001 for abusing eight girls at the same home, and survivors urged others abused at Skircoat Lodge to come forward.