SAN DIEGO -- A former Children's Hospital respiratory therapist accused of molesting five disabled children under his care must stand trial on sexual assault and child pornography charges, a judge ruled Friday.

Wayne Albert Bleyle, 55, faces up to 158 years to life in prison if convicted of 41 felony counts, said Deputy District Attorney Laura Gunn.

The charges include eight counts of committing a lewd act on a child, 25 counts of distributing child pornography for a commercial purpose and eight counts of using a child to create child porn.

After a 2-and-a-half day preliminary hearing, Superior Court Judge Kenneth So said there was sufficient cause to believe Bleyle was guilty and that he be held to answer the charges at trial.

An arraignment was scheduled for Thursday, at which time a trial date will be selected.

Gunn told the judge that Bleyle admitted molesting his young patients over several years.

The defendant also had "thousands upon thousands" of child porn images on his computer that was seized from his Santee home in March, the prosecutor said.

Sexually explicit photos that Bleyle admitted taking of child patients were also found on his computer, the prosecutor said.

But defense attorney Casey Donovan told the judge there was no time and place connected to the photos, and without the defendant's admissions, the prosecution's case was thin.

"Without the statements, there's nothing," Donovan told the judge.

A 13-year-old stroke victim testified Wednesday that Bleyle touched her buttocks about three years ago while she was a patient at Children's Hospital.

The girl, her voice barely audible in a hushed courtroom, told Gunn that the alleged molestation occurred when she was about 10 years old and undergoing treatment at Children's convalescent ward.

Asked what the touching felt like, the wheelchair-bound stroke victim responded: "Nasty."

On cross-examination, the girl confirmed to Donovan that she told San Diego police Detective Misty Cedrun that the alleged molestation "might have been a dream."

The girl said she was awake when the touching occurred, but when pressed by Donovan if it actually happened, the girl said, "I don't know."

Senior Special Agent Aaron Meeks of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement testified that Bleyle told him the girl confronted him after the touching.

"She said, `I know what you did, Wayne,'" according to Meeks, also a member of the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force.

Anna Engel testified that she came to the hospital to visit her ill son about a year ago and found Bleyle with his hand on the boy's diaper.

"When I pulled the curtain back (around the bed), Wayne seemed startled," Engel testified.

Bleyle left the room and didn't return, the mother testified. She said she finished changing her son's diaper, which wasn't even wet.

The boy, now 13, just returned home after spending 10 years at the hospital, the mother testified.

She said she came forward to authorities when she heard about Bleyle's other alleged victims.

Lillian Godfrey's daughter died two-and-a-half years ago at age 13 after living at the convalescent ward of the hospital for 12 years.

The mother testified that over the years, she saw Bleyle at her daughter's bed more than 20 times with the privacy curtain drawn around it.

The woman said she also repeatedly asked Bleyle to stop touching her daughter's fragile body while doing a certain breathing treatment.

"He said that she liked it and she was fine," Godfrey testified.

Meeks also testified that Bleyle told him in March that he had molested "countless" children, beginning in 1996.

San Diego police Sgt. Christopher Armstrong testified Tuesday that two child pornography files were recovered from the Bleyle's home computer in Santee.

Armstrong said authorities were conducting a general investigation into peer-to-peer computer networks a year ago when they noticed known child porn going to an Internet protocol address, later tracked to a computer in Bleyle's home.

At the start of the hearing, Gunn told the judge that she plans to add a 42nd count soon, charging Bleyle with molesting a boy in 1988 or 1989.