BELLINGHAM - A Level I sex offender has been charged with molesting two Bellingham girls who were starting elementary school at the time.

Keith A. Rosser, 35, stayed in a Bellingham home where one of the girls lived. According to court records, the girl's parents were unaware Rosser tried to molest a toddler in Colorado more than a decade ago.

Prosecutors alleged Rosser crept into the girl's bedroom during slumber parties, when both girls were in the bed. The girls would wake up to see Rosser staring at them, according to the charges. They later told detectives he often rubbed their legs, and they would pretend to be asleep.

One time, the charges say, he tried to molest one of the girls. She screamed to get him to stop.

Child Protective Services forwarded an abuse report to police in November.

After detectives interviewed him, Rosser wrote a note to both of the girls: He apologized for looking at them inappropriately and for touching them, and said he "never should have done it," according to the charges.

He stands accused of two counts of child molestation in the first degree.

In 2008, Rosser was sentenced to a year in jail for failing to register as a sex offender. All but two months of the sentence was suspended.

Level I sex offenders are considered a low risk to reoffend. Most of them are convicted of nonviolent offenses and have gone through a treatment program.

Reach Caleb Hutton at 360-715-2276 or caleb.hutton@bellinghamherald.com. Read his dispatcher blog at blogs.bellinghamherald.com/dispatcher or follow him on Twitter at @bhamcrime.