A RETIRED care home manager has been jailed - three decades after terrorising boys in her care.

Cynthia Chandler carried out a catalogue of attacks on children from broken and deprived homes.

The abuse took place while she and her husband ran the National Children's Home in Harrogate.

Her acts of cruelty included:

l Smashing a stiletto-heeled shoe into a ten-year-old boy's head.

l Beating a boy, 14, over the back of his head with a metal shovel because he was not washing up quickly enough.

l Locking a naked 11-year-old boy in a small room before beating him and dragging him by the hair.

l Battering a 16-year-old with a broom until his body was covered in bruises.

Chandler was given the responsibility of caring for young children from problem backgrounds - some had already suffered at the hands of their parents. Instead they were ritually beaten.

It took three decades to bring Chandler, now a frail 70-year-old, to justice. The emotional and physical scars cut too deep for her victims to expose her wrongdoings until many years later.

Chandler was jailed for nine months on Wednesday by Judge Jonathan Crabtree at York Crown Court, who said: "You were supposed to be looking after them, not beating them."

Her husband, Raymond, who jointly ran the home, is already serving an eight-year prison sentence for indecently assaulting boys at the unit.

Wednesday's sentence for years of violence towards boys from broken homes was the final chapter in a series of physical and sexual abuse cases uncovered in Harrogate, and at a Barnardo's home in Ripon, by North Yorkshire Police.

When arrested in 1999, Mrs Chandler claimed: "I was a disciplinarian and would try to put the fear of God up them. But there was no physical violence."

A National Children's Home spokesperson said: "We are shocked that this abuse happened and that she betrayed the trust placed in her."

New measures are in place to stop such an horrific catalogue of abuse occurring again.

Inspector Phil Metalfe, who led the investigation, and his team of officers were commended by the judge.

Insp Metcalfe said: "The inquiry was totally unsolicited. We established there was no connection between what went on at the two homes, and neither was there a paedophile ring.