Teacher acquitted of child abuse charges

A CHABAD Lubavitch teacher has been acquitted of indecent assault against four underage boys.

Daniel Golomb, 46, was found not guilty on all 14 counts by a jury at Manchester Crown Court on Wednesday.

Mr Golomb, now of Stamford Hill, denied all of the charges — although he admitted wiping the bottoms of three of the boys, saying it was “inappropriate”.

He maintained his actions had not been sexually motivated, saying he was “naïve and unworldly… and overfastidious” about personal hygiene when he began working as a teacher in his late teens.

Summing up the evidence, Judge David Hernandez recalled the testimony of one alleged victim, who claimed Mr Golomb pressed his organ against him.

The teacher denied this, although he conceded that he had “held hands and hugged” the boy in bed while fully clothed but said he was not sexually aroused.

He also said he received little supervision at the school and had had no formal teacher training.

The jury heard that the father-of-five was of “good character” and enjoyed “standing” in the Charedi community as an “impressive and learned man”.

Each of the victims, now all in their 30s, either reported feeling unaware that Mr Golomb’s alleged offences were “wrong” at the time, or that they were unable to report them.

Besides the wiping three of the boys in intimate areas, which Mr Golomb admitted, Judge Hernandez instructed the jury to first consider whether they believed he had committed the other alleged acts.

He added that, for all 14 counts, the jury also had to consider whether each act constituted indecency “as viewed by right-minded people”, as well as whether the defendant “intended to commit an indecent act”.

Born in Enfield, North London, Mr Golomb settled in Prestwich, in Salford, in the early 1990s after returning from a Canadian yeshiva.

He later spent time working in Liverpool and Marin County, California, before relocating to Stamford Hill.

After the two-and-a-half week trial, the jury deliberated for two days before reaching their verdicts.

Golomb said he had ‘hugged’ the boy in bed