CASCO - A 20-year-old Casco man was charged Wednesday with breaking into a home he lived in last year and beating the homeowner with a pipe wrench before being overpowered and fleeing into the night.

Nicholas Small of 78 Pine Hill Road was found at a friend's house in Naples hours after breaking into the home at 4 Heritage Lane shortly after midnight Wednesday, said Capt. Jeff Davis of the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office.

The homeowner was identified as Jamie White, 29, according to Channel 8 News.

She suffered bruises to her head and body and was treated at Brighton Medical Center in Portland, the investigator said.

White and her three children ages 2, 8 and 10 were asleep when Small broke into the house, according to the officer's report.

Thinking her dogs were barking because one of the children might have been up, she went to check on them and was confronted by Small, the officer said.

When she tried to get to a phone to call for help, Small followed her and took her purse, Davis said, then tried to leave. White went after him, he said, the two struggled and she was struck several times with a plumber's pipe wrench.

They eventually fell down a set of stairs into the basement.

White told Channel 8 News that her 10-year-old daughter, Tameika Girardin, began beating Small with a broom at that point.

"I picked up the broom down there, whacked him in the head and the back," Girardin said. "Then he told me to stop or else he'd kill my mom, so I stopped. And then he kicked me in the stomach and in the leg," she told Channel 8 News.

Small eventually broke free and fled out a door without White's purse, Davis said.

"She retained possession of the purse after the struggle was over," he said.

White called the Sheriff's Department and identified Small as her attacker, Davis said.

"He apparently resided there briefly a year ago," he said.

Small, who apparently was not injured, was found by detectives at a friend's home in Naples a while later and arrested on charges of felony robbery, which includes bodily injury, and burglary, Davis said. He is being held without bail at the Cumberland County Jail in Portland on a charge of probation violation because of a prior theft charge. He also has $5,000 bail on other charges, Davis said.

None of White's children was seriously hurt, Davis said, and her husband, who was plowing snow at the time of the invasion, was notified and returned home to care for the children while she was taken to the hospital.