Skircoat Lodge: Pensioner, 91, accused of abuse at children's home in Halifax

20 January 2025, 10:54 | Updated: 20 January 2025, 12:39

A pensioner in his 90s is among two people charged with multiple child sexual offences at a children's home more than 30 years ago, police have said.

Malcolm Phillips, 91, and Linda Brunning, 65, will appear in court on Tuesday.

It comes after police launched an investigation in 2018 into allegations of abuse at Skircoat Lodge Children's Home in Halifax, West Yorkshire, between 1970 and 1995.

Phillips, of Tyseley, Birmingham, is accused of 32 offences, relating to seven victims, both male and female, between 1976 and 1994.

The charges include rape, indecent assault, gross indecency and other sexual offences, including two counts of aiding and abetting an unknown male to commit indecent assault.

He has also been charged with three other sexual offences, as well as aiding and abetting a man to commit a sexual offence.

Brunning, of Sowerby Bridge, near Halifax, has been charged with 15 offences related to three victims, both male and female, between 1980 and 1994.

These include indecent assault, and other offences in which she is accused of aiding and abetting sexual offending.

They have both been bailed and are due to appear at Bradford Magistrates Court on Tuesday, West Yorkshire Police said.

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