SKOWHEGAN — A Bingham man with a lengthy list of previous convictions for sexual crimes is on trial this week.

Christopher C. Cates, 49, faces accusations, among others, that he had unlawful sexual contact with two young girls during their family’s camping trip in 2023. The trial began Tuesday morning at Somerset County Superior Court in Skowhegan.

Christopher C. Cates Somerset County Sheriff’s Office photo

At the end of the trial, scheduled for three days, jurors will consider Cates’ guilt on five counts: two counts of unlawful sexual contact, one a Class B and one a Class C; one Class C count of visual sexual aggression against a child; one Class D count of unlawful sexual touching; and one Class E count of indecent conduct.

District Court Judge Andrew Benson, who is overseeing the trial, will determine Cates’ guilt on five other counts, after Cates waived a jury trial for those allegations. Those charges, according to court records, are one Class B count of tampering with a victim, one Class C count of tampering with a witness or informant and three Class D counts of attempted violation of condition of release.

Cates has pleaded not guilty to all counts.

Attorneys agreed before the trial started that they will first present evidence pertaining to the first five counts, and then, either while the jury is deliberating or afterward, the evidence pertaining to the other five counts.

Cates was arrested in connection with the case in September 2023. The offenses are alleged to have taken place in July 2023 in Moscow, according to a grand jury indictment handed down in February 2024.

Five days after his initial arrest, having posted $25,000 cash bail, Cates was arrested again for violating bail conditions and later charged with the tampering counts, court records show. He has since been held without bail at the Somerset County Jail in Madison while awaiting trial.

In his opening statement, prosecutor Timothy Snyder, first assistant district attorney for the Somerset County district attorney’s office, called the case one of “betrayal” of trust in a family.

Cates “sexually abused” the 9-year-old and 13-year-old girls, who are sisters, during a camping trip with family and their parents’ friends in Moscow on June 30, 2023, Snyder said.

In separate interactions, Cates exposed himself to both girls, forcing them to touch him, Snyder said. He also touched one of the girls inappropriately and compelled the other to participate in a “photo shoot,” Snyder said.

After being confronted, Cates pretended to faint and his wife helped him flee, Snyder said.

The girls, who are both minors, are identified in court records only by their initials, though their names were used during the trial Tuesday. The Morning Sentinel does not identify alleged victims of sexual offenses without their consent.

The girls were expected to testify during the trial, Snyder said in his opening statement.

Defense attorney Kayla Alves, who is representing Cates with attorney Stephen Smith, did not allude to the specifics of the planned defense in her opening statement. Instead, she spoke broadly to the jury about the presumption of innocence and a prosecutor’s burden to prove the case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Jurors heard testimony from one witness, the alleged victims’ mother, Tuesday morning before taking a midday lunch break.

The mother testified that she had only met Cates once before the camping trip, and she was surprised to see him at the remote campsite when her family arrived for a Fourth of July trip with two family friends who knew Cates. She began to cry while testifying about what she knew happened to her daughters and said they will not discuss what happened with her.

While on the witness stand, the mother faced questioning from Smith, one of Cates’ attorneys, about her relationship with Christopher White, one of the two friends who joined her family on the trip.

She knew White was a convicted sexual offender but believed he had been rehabilitated and had no issue with him spending time with her daughters or organizing the logistics of the camping trip. She said she had met White about six months prior at a concert and later attended an adult sex toy party with him. She and her kids developed a good relationship with him and his fiancée, the mother said.

White ultimately played a role in the investigation, Snyder, the prosecutor, said.

Detective Jeremy Leal of the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office, the primary investigator of the case, had White talk to Cates while wearing a recording device. Cates told White that the sexual contact was an accident and discussed his escape, according to Snyder.

Court records show Benson, the judge, ruled some but not all of Cates’ statements to White can be admitted as evidence. Benson granted a motion to suppress Cates’ statements to White after Sept. 22, 2023, pertaining to the alleged conduct at the Moscow campground.

Before the trial began Tuesday morning, Benson ruled that forensic interviews with the two alleged victims can be used as evidence, pursuant to rules defined in state statute. Cates’ attorneys had argued that there were issues with how the interviews were conducted and with the statute governing their use in trials.

Also before the jury arrived, Cates rejected the last plea offer from Snyder. That deal would have effectively resulted in a 30-year prison sentence, with all but 20 years suspended in lieu of probation of supervised release.

Cates is a Tier III lifetime registrant on the Maine Sex Offender Registry for previous convictions of unlawful sexual contact and prohibited contact with a person under 14 years of age, online records show.

At the time of his arrest in 2023, the Somerset County Sheriff’s Office said Cates’ most recent conviction was in 2021 and he had at least seven convictions over a 10-year period.

A jury found Cates guilty of unlawful sexual contact involving a 60-year-old woman in 2017, the Morning Sentinel reported.

Cates had convictions in Kennebec County courts dating back to 1996, according to a Sentinel news story following the 2017 trial.