Source: West Yorkshire Police published on this website Wednesday 25 February 2026 by Jill Powell

A woman at the centre of systematic abuse at a children’s home in Halifax has been convicted. 

Linda Brunning, aged 66, of Sowerby Bridge, Calderdale, stood trial at Bradford Crown Court facing five charges, one count of indecent assault on a male person, two counts of aiding and abetting indecent assault and two counts of aiding and abetting buggery. 

On Monday 23 February, she was found guilty of all five charges.

Malcolm Phillips, aged 93, of Tyseley, Birmingham, was also 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 but was deemed unfit to stand trial and so faced a trial of facts. The Judge is still to make orders in respect of Philips. 

 As Phillips was deemed unfit for trial, he could only be tried in absentia on what is known as ‘agreed facts’. In a trial of agreed facts there are only a limited number of orders available to a Judge. There can be no verdict of guilty, and the court cannot pass sentence. 

The convictions follow investigations carried out by West Yorkshire Police into abuse, both physical and sexual, which occurred from the 1970s to the 1990s at Skircoat Lodge Children’s Home. The home was established to provide temporary accommodation and a place of protection for children who were the subject of care orders. Children, aged four to 16, were placed there for their own safety. Philips was employed by Calderdale Social Services as its manager and principal from 1976 with Brunning as his assistant from 1978. 

Over two decades, the pair created a regime of fear and violence, avoiding detection for their abhorrent crimes because no one dared speak out against them. After staff started to speak up, Calderdale Social Services asked the NSPCC to investigate the practices at the home in 1994 resulting in Phillips being suspended and Brunning being moved.

The home closed in 1996 and two years later West Yorkshire Police launched an investigation resulting in a trial which led to three men being convicted. This prompted further victim-survivors to come forward reporting sexual offences and physical abuse while at Skircoat Lodge. An investigation launched in 2018 focused on both male and female victims who reported offences taking place between 1976 and 1994.

 The trial focused on six victim-survivors and followed a meticulous investigation by a dedicated team of officers who worked closely with them to record their accounts including:  

• Reviewing more than 3,500 documents, some over 1,000 pages long
• Speaking to over 1,100 individuals, including victim-survivors and witnesses 
• Examining third party material, social care records, and the material from the original 1998 investigation.

Some suspects named in victim-survivor accounts were initially unidentified, which added further time and complexity. 

Senior Investigating Officer, Detective Chief Inspector Claire Smith of Calderdale District Police, said:

“We would like to thank the victim-survivors for the tremendous bravery they have shown in coming forward and sharing their experiences with the police, leading to this conviction.

“They endured abhorrent abuse at the hands of people who were entrusted and paid to care for them, in a place that should have been safe. As children, they were made to feel powerless, told that no one would believe them and that speaking up would put them in danger. After years of carrying that fear, their voices have finally been heard. No child should ever be faced with what these children had to endure, and I want to highlight the sheer courage and determination held by those who came forward to report this abuse.

“The investigation has been an extensive and lengthy process, which encountered challenges and delays along the way, but the investigation team have been relentless in doing all they could to secure justice.

“I also want to thank the many witnesses who, alongside the victim-survivors, came forward to share their accounts in support of the investigation. Their willingness to stand in court and describe the stringent environment within the home, as well as the power held over the children and staff, has been invaluable.

“We accept opportunities have been 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. Above all, we hope the victims feel that their voices have been heard and that a measure of justice has been achieved.

“Since the publication of the Jay report in 2014, West Yorkshire Police has taken a proactive stance in exploring previous incidents and disclosures relating to non-recent group-based child sexual exploitation and abuse.

“This has resulted in in hundreds of perpetrators now serving lengthy prison sentences totalling thousands of years. Many investigations are still underway, with trials scheduled throughout this year and next.

“Alongside our complex investigative work, we’ve shaped our policing response through working with survivors, charities, and safeguarding partners. We also work closely with the national Hydrant Programme to continually review and develop our approach, ensuring victims and survivors are at the forefront of everything we do.” 

“We would encourage anyone who has suffered child abuse and exploitation to come forward and report it to us. No matter the length of time passed, you will be listened to, believed, and we will do all we can to fight for justice.”

Source: Ofcom published on this website Monday 23 September 2026 by Jill Powell

Under the UK’s Online Safety Act, sites that allow pornographic material must use highly effective age assurance to prevent children from readily accessing that content.

Within days of this duty coming into force in July 2025, Ofcom launched investigations into the providers of dozens of adult sites, including 8579 LLC. These websites were prioritised based on their user numbers.

Following investigation, we have fined 8579 LLC £1.35 million for failing to comply with these age check requirements. The company must immediately implement highly effective age assurance or face a daily penalty of £1,000.

Gathering accurate information from companies is fundamental to our job of making life safer online for people in the UK. These requests can help us to assess and monitor industry compliance with their safety duties, and firms are required, by law, to respond in an accurate, complete and timely way.

For failing to abide by these requirements, we have also fined 8579 LLC £50,000. We will impose a daily penalty of £250 on the company until it responds, or for 60 days, whichever is sooner.

George Lusty, Director of Enforcement at Ofcom, said:

“We’ve been clear that adult sites must deploy robust age checks to protect children in the UK from seeing porn. Those that fail to do this – or ignore legally binding requests from us – should expect to face fines.”

Source: Department for Health and Social Care published on this website Tuesday 24 February 2026 by Jill Powell

Thousands more children across the country could be protected from deadly and highly infectious diseases under changes to the GP contract.

The updated contract for 2026/27 – due to be unveiled this week – includes additional help for GPs to save young lives and shield families from preventable illness by strengthening vaccination delivery where it is needed most.

The move should help reduce outbreaks, such as the current one in Enfield, where dozens of unvaccinated children have contracted measles and in the worst cases find themselves in hospital fighting a serious but preventable disease.

Under the current system, only those GP practices hitting high vaccination rate targets earn additional incentive payments.

Practices in communities with lower vaccination rates - and who need the assistance most - are often missing out on earning these additional payments even when they are making massive strides and recording year-on-year improvements in vaccination rates.

At the same time, the UK has lost its World Health Organization (WHO) measles elimination status - after over 2,900 cases of measles were confirmed in England in 2024, the highest levels recorded in decades

And childhood vaccination rates are well below the 95% WHO uptake target needed to prevent measles outbreaks - and are falling.

The next GP contract will help change this by providing improvement incentives that recognise those practices making progress. These additional resources can then be used to reinvest in outreach and to follow‑up with families with unvaccinated children.

Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting said:

“Vaccinations are safe and they save lives. The return of diseases we thought we’d defeated, with children in hospital as a result, is entirely preventable.

“With our investment and modernisation in general practice, GPs will be backed to protect children and prevent the risk of further outbreaks like we’ve seen Enfield.

“Every child deserves a healthy, happy start to life.”

These improvement payments will give GPs the resources they need to help parents to protect children who are currently missing out and reduce health inequalities that leave some babies at far greater risk than others simply because of where they live.

Embedding vaccination delivery at the heart of the GP contract is expected to increase uptake in high‑risk communities, helping to stop outbreaks before they start and keeping children out of hospital.

The updated contract will also match childhood vaccination incentives for GPs with the latest national vaccine schedule.

Ruth Rankine, Director of the Primary Care Network and Neighbourhood Lead at the NHS Confederation and NHS Providers, said:

“Primary care leaders welcome this announcement and see it as a fair and supportive approach for general practice, particularly for those working in communities with high levels of unmet need. Increasing childhood vaccination uptake can be challenging, especially in areas where coverage has fallen and the risk of outbreaks has risen, so additional support for practices to work with families will be vital in helping protect babies and children from serious, preventable diseases.

“We are particularly supportive of recognising meaningful improvement rather than relying solely on absolute thresholds. This is a more realistic and constructive way to encourage progress, given the very real challenges many practices face, including workforce pressures and higher levels of vaccine hesitancy in some communities. Extending improvement-based incentives more widely would help ensure practices are supported to build trust with families and increase uptake over time.

“General practice plays a crucial role in safeguarding children’s health and primary care leaders are committed to working with communities to reduce inequalities in vaccination coverage and protect more children from life-threatening illnesses.

The NHS’s vaccination programme was expanded on 1 January to include chickenpox (also known as varicella) for the first time to help protect hundreds of thousands of young children from getting seriously ill.”

GP practices started to offer children a combined MMRV vaccine at 12 months and 18 months of age to add chickenpox to the protections against measles, mumps and rubella.

GP quality indicators will be updated to include the delivery of the combined measles, mumps, rubella and varicella (MMRV) vaccine.

This removes unnecessary complexity for practices and ensures they are fairly rewarded as MMRV is rolled out.

Children are not the only people to benefit from changes to the GP contract.

Primary Care Networks will be required to identify care home residents with overdue or outstanding routine vaccinations. The contract will also allow for greater flexibility in how practices collaborate to deliver flu and COVID-19 vaccines.

By embedding vaccination delivery into the contract we expect increased uptake in high-risk populations.

The GP contract 2026/27 will also reflect the extension of the RSV vaccination programme to all adults aged 80 and over and all residents in care homes for older adults, in addition to existing cohorts, from April. GP practices are required to offer the RSV vaccination to eligible patients as an essential service.

 A new £2 million pilot will also see health visitors reach families facing barriers to vaccines, to ensure more children are protected.

Source: Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) published on this website Thursday 19 February 2026 by Jill Powell

A former Bolton Council worker has been jailed for defrauding almost £900,000 in DWP benefits from vulnerable adults whose finances he was employed to protect.

Richard Shaw, 46 from Bolton, spent the stolen funds on luxury items including two BMW vehicles costing nearly £120,000, garden improvements worth almost £18,000, holiday lodges in the Ribble Valley worth £100,000, and more than £53,000 in payments to different women with references such as ‘treat’ and ‘nice’ which amounted to hundreds of pounds every week.

Shaw was employed by Bolton Metropolitan Council's Financial Protection Team, initially as a Finance Officer and later as an Appointee Officer in 2014. His role was to manage state benefits on behalf of service users who were unable to manage their own finances and had no one else to assist them.

Between 5 May 2015 and 18 April 2023, he transferred a total of £893,926.01 from council accounts and the personal funds of vulnerable service users into bank accounts belonging to himself, his wife, and a joint account.

The court heard that Shaw was responsible for managing the funds of 217 service users, 43 of whom were deceased with funds awaiting transfer to their next of kin or the state. He exploited his detailed knowledge of the council's financial systems to divert money into nine separate bank accounts.

The fraud was uncovered in February 2023 when concerns were raised about accounts running unusually low. Shaw was suspended and subsequently dismissed. When his personal locker was searched, officers found bank cards belonging to service users, and a list of deceased clients.

Stephane Pendered from the Crown Prosecution Service said:

 "Richard Shaw was entrusted with safeguarding the finances of some of the most vulnerable people in his community. Instead, he systematically stole from them over an eight-year period.

"His victims were people who relied on the council because they could not manage their own affairs. Shaw callously exploited that vulnerability, even targeting the accounts of deceased service users knowing they would be less likely to be checked.

"The CPS worked closely with Greater Manchester Police and Bolton Metropolitan Council to build a strong case that led to Shaw's guilty plea.

"We hope today's sentence provides some measure of justice for the victims and sends a clear message that those who abuse positions of trust will be held to account."

Shaw was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison today at Bolton Crown Court.

The CPS will now commence confiscation proceedings under the Proceeds of Crime Act to recover any funds and assets from this criminal activity.