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Elgin man pleads guilty to sexual abuse

An Elgin man accused of molesting a child at the Elgin Mall pleaded guilty Thursday to aggravated criminal sexual abuse.

Daniel Dawson had placed his hand over the private area of a 6-year-old boy while in a restroom at the mall on McLean Boulevard Aug. 26, 2010, according to court records.

Dawson, 35, agreed to a sentence of 4½ years in prison, with credit for 491 days already spent in the Kane County jail.

He could have received probation or up to seven years in prison.

In 2010, he was charged with solicitation, after a woman called police because Dawson was hanging around outside Channing Elementary School in Elgin asking people when children were to be dismissed for the day. It was reduced to a battery charge, and in May 2010 he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six months in jail and two years probation.

Dawson was also charged in 2003 with felony child abduction, accused of trying to lure an 8-year-old girl in to the men’s bathroom at Wing Park in Elgin. He pleaded guilty in March 2005 and was sentenced to 24 months sex offender probation and fined $600.

In April 2008 he was sentenced to two years in prison after violating his probation by not completing sex offender counseling and testing positive for marijuana in May 2007.

Dawson was also convicted of battery in Elgin and sentenced in May 2010 to two years of probation and 180 days in jail.

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