BATON ROUGE – Authorities have arrested a 53-year-old Florida man accused of raping a child on multiple occasions.

The East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office reports that John Lee Harden is behind bars after a child told authorities that since the age of six, she'd been forced into sexual acts by Harden on multiple occasions.

After listening to the victim’s accounts of the incidents, police say they caught up with and questioned Harden.

According to a police report, while being questioned, Harden began telling authorities about a woman that both he and the victim knew, saying when the woman asked him for money, he’d suggestively replied, “What are you going to do for it?”

Police say Harden admitted that, in retrospect, this reply was inappropriate but that he meant no harm by it.

The report goes on to say when Harden realized which victim he was being questioned about, he appeared to be in shock and quickly denied the allegations, saying he’d never touched the victim inappropriately.

Harden was arrested on one count of first-degree rape.