CALIFORNIA BRIEFING / SANTA ANA
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A 59-year-old piano teacher who fled to Germany in 2006 to avoid prosecution pleaded guilty Wednesday to sexually assaulting three young girls in their homes or at a La Mirada music school.
In April 2006, Daniel Peter Gaudin was charged with molesting a girl during lessons at her home starting in late 2004. The 7-year-old turned 8 in the course of the alleged abuse. Gaudin scheduled the lessons for times when her parents were away, prosecutors say.
Free on bail in that case, he fled to Germany and missed a court appearance in late 2006, authorities said. As authorities searched for him, they said they discovered that he had allegedly sexually assaulted two more girls, ages 8 and 9, between 2004 and 2006.
Gaudin was arrested on a fugitive warrant in May 2007 as he tried to enter Canada on a flight from London, and was brought to Orange County. He pleaded guilty Wednesday to three counts of sexual abuse and one count of committing a lewd act on a child under 14. He is expected to get nine years in prison when sentenced March 27 in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana.
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-- Christopher Goffard
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