A domineering woman who abused vulnerable children over two decades at a care home she helped to run 'like a prison' has been jailed for 25 years.Linda Brunning, 66, ruled Skircoat Lodge children's home in Halifax, West Yorkshire, 'through fear', regularly 'humiliating and physically abusing' youngsters who were often sent to the home for their own safety.She helped the boss of the facility, Malcolm Phillips, now 93, isolate and sexually abuse boys and girls as young as nine between the 1970s and 1990s.Despite his 'heinous acts', Phillips, who has prostate cancer, was handed an absolute discharge after being found unfit to stand trial.Judge Kirstie Watson said it was the only sentence available, adding: 'I do that with great reluctance given the seriousness of the offences for which you have been convicted.'A jury at Bradford Crown Court was instead asked to determine whether or not he committed the acts alleged.After deliberating for more than 25 hours, Phillips was convicted of multiple sexual offences against six victims – four female and one male – between 1976 and 1994.Brunning was found guilty of restraining one boy while Phillips sexually assaulted him and indecently assaulting another herself while drying him after a shower. She will have to serve two-thirds of her sentence in custody.'Master manipulator' Phillips, of Birmingham, was previously jailed for seven years in 2001 for indecently assaulting eight girls at Skircoat Lodge. Linda Brunning, 66, ruled Skircoat Lodge children's home in Halifax, West Yorkshire, 'through fear', regularly 'humiliating and physically abusing' youngsters Malcolm Phillips, 93, received an absolute discharge after being ruled unfit to stand trial. He abused children in his care for almost 20 years Linda Brunning, 66, was found guilty of restraining one boy while Phillips sexually assaulted him and indecently assaulting another herself while drying him after a showerTheir sentencing hearing on Monday heard that children were abused for almost two decades 'against a backdrop of legitimacy' at the council-run facility, with Phillips and Brunning avoiding detection because of a 'regime of fear'.Prosecutor Michelle Colborne, KC, said: 'Malcolm Phillips had overall responsibility for the running of Skircoat Lodge. With that position came power.'He let no-one challenge his authority. The children were placed in his trust. He lived within the complex. This provided him unfettered access to the other rooms, including the children's bedrooms.'Over two decades, Malcolm Phillips used his power to isolate specific children to use for his sexual gratification.'Kelly Lees, 43, who was indecently assaulted by Phillips between the ages of 11 and 12, said he had 'abused so many children and practically got away with it.'Ms Lees, who has waived her right to anonymity, said: 'He should have been sent to prison. Prisons are full of shoplifters and begging and victims – women's prisons are full of victims.'Why is someone who's abused children and been found guilty sitting at home, comfortable? I can't comprehend it.'He's abused so many children and practically got away with it. That's not justice.'Brunning, of Sowerby Bridge, West Yorkshire, worked alongside Phillips for 16 years after becoming his assistant in 1978. Skircoat Lodge children's home finally closed in 1995 after allegations of physical and sexual abuse began to emerge Kelly Lees, who was abused at Skircoat Lodge as a trial and has waived her right to anonymity, said she felt Phillips had 'got away with it'The court heard that Brunning, was a 'fearsome character who used her size to overwhelm children' and would 'jump on boys to wake them up'.One victim told how he was punished by being thrown naked into a cold bath and 'sometimes passed out' after being sat on by her.Ms Colborne told the court: 'It is a feature of the case that the children were exploited precisely because of their vulnerabilities.'The defendants told the children that no one cared about them, or that no one would believe them if they told anyone what was happening.'They were threatened that their pocket money would be withheld, which in the context of their lives was hugely important. Worse still, they were threatened with the removal of visits from family.'If, as was often the case, they ran away from Skircoat Lodge, they were taken straight back by the police and accused of being troublemakers or liars.'Brunning sat in the dock while Phillips appeared over a video link as victims recalled their abuse in harrowing, and often tearful, court statements.Angela Radford, who has also waived her right to anonymity, was 16 when she arrived at Skircoat Lodge in 1976.She said Phillips entered her bedroom after lights out, kissed her and touched her under her nightie. She said he 'just did what he wanted and we were powerless to stop him'.After Ms Radford ran away from the home, police returned her and she was 'labelled a liar'.A further victim told how children at Skircote Lodge were 'treated like slaves'.Passing sentence, Judge Watson told Phillips: 'Some children you groomed, lulling them into the false sense of security that you were their friend and then turning on them, either with violence, aggression or sexual abuse'But all within that establishment talked of the way in which you dealt with people within it - with fear and domination.'She said Brunning 'adopted a similar style to Malcolm Phillips, ruling in fear.''The way in which you both acted towards those children was completely contrary to the care and nurture that was expected from you,' she said.Speaking after the sentencing hearing, Detective Chief Inspector Claire Smith of Calderdale District Police said: 'Today's outcome cannot undo the harm suffered by those children at Skircoat Lodge, but it does represent long overdue accountability.'The bravery shown by the survivors in coming forward after so many years has been extraordinary, and we hope this brings some measure of acknowledgement and closure.'