An Oak Harbor man is being held in Island County jail after being accused of raping two children while they were in kindergarten or younger, according to court records.

Prosecutors charged Peter L. Lambert, 46, in Island County Superior Court Aug. 2 with four counts of rape of a child in the first degree. The counts were charged as domestic violence crimes.

At a hearing on July 29, Judge Christon Skinner set Lambert’s bail at $50,000, partly based on his risk of flight given the lengthy sentence he could face if convicted of the charges.

Under the standard sentencing range, Lambert would face an indeterminate sentence with a minimum of 20 years to 26.5 years and up to life in prison if convicted of all the charges. Under such a sentence, a review board would decide whether to release him after he served the minimum.

Lambert is accused of abusing the children from 2015 to 2017, according to the charging documents.

The young girl and boy were interviewed by a detective with the Island County Sheriff’s Office. Based on their disclosures, Lambert raped the children when they were “about 5 and 6 years old,” the detective wrote in his report on the case.

The detective contacted Lambert while he was in Montana earlier this year and he denied committing the crimes. The detective later found him at a North Whidbey residence and Lambert said he thought “all of this had been resolved,” the report states.