(NECN: Deanna Morgan, Wakefield, Mass.) - Matt Shea has an office in the Wakefield, Mass. building where John Burbine and his wife, Marian, housed their day care center office. He said he has seen Burbine a few times but didn't know him.
"...just looked like any other guy," said Shea. "I didn't really pay much attention, he didn't really look like he'd do what he did...can't believe it."
John Burbine has been a registered Level 1 sex offender since 1989. The Middlesex County District Attorney says he has had a couple convictions for indecent assault and battery on a child. Fast forward 23 years.
"He forced touchings on these victims," said DA Gerry Leone. "He would also force the victims to touch himself in places."
Burbine now faces 100 counts in criminal charges for child sex abuse. Leone says Burbine's wife, Marian, who's charged with wreckless endangerment of a child was involved.
"This is the crux of why we're here today," said Leone. "...because she allowed her husband, John Burbine, to care for children...despite knowing that John Burbine was a convicted sex offender."
The business that the couple ran, Waterfall Education Center, has been on law enforcement radar since 2009. Leone said the sex abuse incidents connected to this case happened between 2009 and 2012. His office began its investigation this past July.
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Investigators and prosecutors, he said, "have had to go through the visual depictions that this defendant himself took of himself sexually assaulting and forcibly raping these children eight days old to 3.5 years old."
Leone said his office has identified at least 13 victims, but there are probably a lot more.
John Burbine will be arraigned December 12. His wife will be in court December 20. She remains on house arrest and has been charged with wreckless endangerment of a child.
Leone wants anyone who knows a potential victim in this case to call the Child Abuse Hotline: 781-897-8400.
