A Washington County judge has sentenced Douglas Sokell, 71, to life in prison under Oregon's three-strikes law for sex offenders.

At a non-jury trial, Circuit Judge Andrew Erwin found the Forest Grove man guilty in September of molesting a young girl in a Hillsboro library. It was the latest in a series of child sex abuse convictions for Sokell and, under Oregon sentencing laws, this one made him eligible for life in prison without the possibility of parole.

He was sentenced Nov. 4, according to Senior Deputy District Attorney Megan Johnson.

Sokell was convicted of first-degree sex abuse in Washington County in 1996, court records show.

In 2012, records say, Sokell pleaded guilty in another sex-abuse case in Lincoln County.

He still has charges pending in Wasco County Circuit Court, where he faces accusations of molesting a 9-year-old girl at a Fred Meyer store in The Dalles.

At Sokell’s trial in Washington County, the victim's mother testified that she had left her daughter in the Hillsboro Public Library's children section for a few minutes. When she returned, her daughter wasn't there.

Nearby, she saw a stranger kneeling with his arm around her daughter. His hand, she testified, was on the girl's buttocks. He made eye contact with the mother briefly, she said.

The mom went to her daughter, she testified, and "the first words out of her mouth were, 'Mommy, I was so scared.'"

Hillsboro police arrested Sokell in October 2012, nearly a year after the incident. Police said they linked Sokell to the crime after a library employee recognized him from a Hillsboro police flier.

-- Emily E. Smith