Sex offender charged with molesting young girl

SEFFNER — A registered sex offender from Seffner has been extradited from Washington state to face new allegations that he had inappropriate contact with two young girls, authorities said.

Timothy Alan Oates, 50, was booked last week in the Hillsborough County jail on a charge of lewd and lascivious molestation. The new allegations arose in September, when detectives interviewed a young girl who described being touched inappropriately by Oates, according to an arrest report. The girl's sister also told detectives that she witnessed the act.

Oates is registered as a sex offender in both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties because of a series of 1993 convictions on child sex charges, according to state records. He was also convicted that year on a kidnapping charge. For that, he served 10 years in state prison. He also spent four years in prison for a previous set of convictions from 1987 that included a charge of attempted kidnapping of a minor for ransom, according to state records. Authorities obtained a warrant and traveled last week to Skagit County, Wash., where Oates was arrested, officials said. He is being held on $50,000 bail.