Inside the children's home where late night footsteps meant fear and abuse

"Every night I'd go to bed and every time you heard the footsteps on the corridor, every time you heard the key going in the door, the panic and fear was immense."

Karen Bentham was 14 when she became a resident of Skircoat Lodge children's home.

She recalls that a few weeks after she arrived at the home, she first began hearing "whispers about what was going on in the girls' dorms".

Karen was staying in a bedroom with other girls, but within months of moving into the home in 1990 she was transferred into a single room, known by residents as "the flat".

That was when Malcolm Phillips, the Halifax home's then manager, began sexually abusing her.

"I can't describe the level of fear. Just the sound of somebody walking along the corridor scared you that much, you didn't dare go to sleep," she remembers.

Karen is one of two women to have waived their lifelong right to anonymity to tell their stories of the sexual abuse they were subjected to by Phillips at Skircoat Lodge.

He was deemed unfit to stand trial and there was a trial of facts on charges of rape, indecent assault and indecency with a child.

His assistant at the time, Linda Brunning, now 66, was found to have taken pleasure in "physically hurting and humiliating children". She was convicted of indecent assault as well as facilitating abuse.

Kelly Lees, who has also waived her right to anonymity, was a scared and vulnerable 11-year-old when she arrived at Skircoat Lodge in 1993.

She remembers being one of the home's youngest residents and describes herself as a "good child" who "loved school".

But she says she soon realised that being well-behaved at Skircoat made her a target for Phillips.

He invited her to complete her homework in his office and then sexually abused her before giving her a lollipop afterwards.

"Malcolm Phillips sexually assaulted me on multiple occasions," she says.

"He called me his special girl.

"Abuse happened in that place to multiple children daily. It wasn't only one child each day, it was multiple children daily."

During the trial, Kelly told the jury she began missing school, hoping the abuse would stop if she did not have any homework.

"When I'd been there five or six months, I started skiving school, but I was located within an hour," she explains.

"Police located me straight away and brought me back straight away. That place had eyes and ears everywhere."

Like Kelly, Karen says she also used to run away from Skircoat Lodge to escape the sexual abuse she was being subjected to by Phillips.

"I could hear him turn the key and at the time I didn't realise what was going to happen," she explains.

"He came into my bedroom and I was just pretending to be asleep. I felt really uncomfortable and that was the first time he raped me."

Afterwards, Karen jumped out of a second-floor bedroom window and ran away.

"I kept running until I saw all the lights of the town," she tells me.

"I was in town for maybe a few hours and the police picked me up and took me straight back to Skircoat Lodge."

This was a pattern described by several victims during this trial: being brought back to the home by police and taken straight to Phillips' office.

"I got taken in the office with a policeman and Mr Phillips was being all authoritative," Karen explains.

"His character changed from what I saw a few hours previously. He went back to being the manager of the children's home."

The men and women who gave evidence during the court case all described Phillips, from Birmingham, as "powerful" and "controlling" and having "eyes and ears everywhere".

Vulnerable children never expected to be believed over him.

"You want to try and find the words to tell the police what's happened, but then you also know that Mr Phillips was clearly a man of authority," Karen says.

"You tell yourself that you're not going to be believed, so I just tried to live with it."

It led to Karen living in a constant state of fear, suffering many sleepless nights after that first attack before Phillips targeted her again.

"The sound of him walking. I could tell he was coming to my bedroom so I tried to pretend to be asleep, but I could feel myself shaking in bed, just pure, utter fear," she says.

"As soon as you hear the key going over the teeth in the Yale lock, I just knew what was going to happen - and it happened again."

To this day, Karen says she is "triggered" by the sound of a key in a lock and the smell of a certain aftershave.

Both women have had lifelong struggles with their mental health and Kelly says that some of her friends from Skircoat "aren't around today" after having taken their own lives or through drug use.

"I've also been on drugs because the drugs numbed the pain, but I am also in recovery," she says.

Kelly says she has spent many hours in the past sitting in police stations trying to report the abuse, but says she was turned away.

"The police officers that have dealt with this have been absolutely amazing, I can't fault them," she says.

However, despite Kelly's recent experiences, her initial attempts to bring Phillips to justice floundered.

"When I first went to report this abuse, I went to that police station numerous times and I wasn't taken seriously," she explains.

"I've been sectioned and I got banned from council offices when I tried reporting the abuse.

"Perpetrators drilled fear into me, but so did systems, and that's why I've waived my anonymity because I'm not scared of them anymore."

Calderdale Council said it was "deeply sorry" for the harm and suffering caused by Phillips and Brunning.

"Since this time, our safeguarding practices have changed beyond recognition.

"There is a strong partnership, focus and commitment from all key organisations working together in Calderdale, to protect children and young people from harm. We take this responsibility extremely seriously," a spokesperson added.

West Yorkshire Police said: "We accept opportunities were missed in the past to protect victims of child sexual exploitation and abuse, but have taken this learning and used it to develop strong partnerships and better working practices with other agencies.

"We want to assure people that these crimes have not gone unpunished, and those responsible have been held to account."

Karen says she also felt she wanted to waive her lifelong right to anonymity after many years of feeling silenced.

"I'm very proud of myself because there was a time when I didn't want to be here anymore. The pain was just too much," she says.

"I'm just so grateful that I'm still here and that I've got the courage now to speak and I don't think I'll ever be silenced again."