A Kentucky man is accused of raping an eight-year-old girl and fracturing her head by hitting her with a shovel, police said.
Louisville Metro Police say Cane Madden, 29, was arrested around 1 a.m. on Sunday for allegedly using the shovel to hit the child in the head before raping her.
Madden was also accused of running off with the child’s iPad, the Louisville Courier-Journal reported.
Police were initially called to the area around 4:30 p.m. Friday to find the injured girl. Officials took her to the hospital, where she was treated for a skull fracture on her right side and other injuries suggesting that she was a victim of sexual assault.
It is unclear how the man initially came into contact with the child.
Those who knew the child were appalled at what happened to her.
“Well, there’s only one kind of prayer you can send. It’s ‘Lord have mercy, and Lord send the angels to watch over her,’” Ruth Watkins, a neighbor of the child, told WDRB-TV. “Oh, it was a hurting, paining feeling going through my heart to know that something like that would happen on this street.”
Madden is currently being held on $1 million bond and faces one count each of first-degree rape, first-degree assault, and first-degree robbery.
Madden has been accused of carrying out at least one other sex crime. In 2017, police said Madden “bit the victim on her face above her left eye, removing a large chunk of the victim’s face,” WDRB-TV reported.
The charges against Madden were dismissed in that case because the judge found him to be too incompetent to stand trial. The Courier-Journal also reported citing online records that other assault charges against him were dismissed.
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