MAN FOUND GUILTY OF SEX ASSAULTS ON GROTON SUNDAY SCHOOL PUPILS

By Paul Langner, Globe Staff
February 26, 1991

CAMBRIDGE -- A former Groton Sunday school teacher was found guilty yesterday of indecent assault and battery on four children who had been in his Sunday school class when they were 11 and 12 years old.

The Middlesex Superior Court jury, after deliberating for more than eight hours in one session, acquitted Leslie Richard Danielson of simple assault and battery on one girl, and of indecent assault on another girl and a boy.Judge Walter E. Steele allowed Danielson to remain free on personal recognizance and scheduled sentencing for March 11 at 2 p.m.

David Linsky, assistant Middlesex district attorney, told Steele that he was not asking for immediate sentencing because "I would like to give the victims and their families, as well as other members of the Groton community, a chance to be present and to make statements to the court if they so desire."

Danielson, 62, had been a member of the choir and taught Sunday school at the Union Congregational Church before his arrest in June 1989. He now lives in Arlington and works as a volunteer at Lawrence Memorial Hospital in Medford.

Danielson was charged with nine counts of assault and battery or indecent assault and battery on six children. He was convicted of indecent assault and battery against four.

He was acquitted of one charge of indecent assault on a girl who testified that he had touched her buttocks as she was going up the stairs in his home, and of a similar charge involving a boy who testified that Danielson touched his leg before being discouraged by the boy's withdrawal. Danielson was also acquitted of simple assault involving a girl who testified that Danielson either lay on top of her during a game in his house or that he knelt over her.

The children testified that Danielson would have them to his house for parties on Friday nights when his wife was away and that during those parties he would fondle them. Danielson denied it, saying he may have patted the children affectionately, or embraced them to encourage them.

Danielson still faces eight charges involving six children. One of those charges is rape of a child. No date has been set for trial on those charges.

Copyright 1991, 1998 Globe Newspaper Company