A 36-year-old Poulsbo man was charged with second-degree child molestation after authorities alleged he repeatedly sexually assaulted a Bainbridge Island girl who was the pre-teen daughter of his employer.

The man was arrested Oct. 7 for child molestation.

Police arrested the man after the victim, now 16, and her mother reported him to police in mid-August.

The accused man, who worked for the landscaping business run by the victim’s mother, alleged started assaulting the girl while he once lived with the family on Bainbridge. The girl told police the abuse started in the sixth grade, when she was 11 or 12, and the man would try to kiss and grope her.

The victim told police she would protest and push away, and the abuse happened “a lot” — every other day for four years. The victim said it happened hundreds of times and she was afraid to come home.

The girl said the man was normal when he wasn’t drinking, but when he was, he became “unreasonable, terrifying really.”

The victim also recounted instances when she was in the seventh and eighth grades where the man tried to assault her, but asked her not to say anything because he would go to jail.

The victim’s claims were later collaborated by her best friend, also now 16, who said she had been told about the incidents and the man’s drinking.

Police interviewed the man on Oct. 7 at the Bainbridge police station while the man’s lawyer was present. According to police, the man’s attorney stopped the questioning after a few minutes.

The suspect was then arrested and booked into Kitsap County Jail on $30,000 bail. He was charged with felony child molestation in Kitsap County District Court on Oct. 8.

Conviction of second-degree child molestation can result in a maximum 10-year prison sentence and a $20,000 fine.