CENTER CITY — A fellow inmate is accused of assaulting the leader of a Minnesota religious sect in prison.

Forty-three-year-old Shane Michael Kringen was charged Thursday with first-degree assault, a felony.

Kringen is accused of assaulting Victor Barnard in a cell at the prison in Rush City on Jan. 8. Barnard is serving a 30-year prison sentence after pleading guilty last year to sexually assaulting two teenage girls who were members of his community.

According to a press release, Barnard suffered facial fractures and cuts, broken ribs and a collapsed lung in the attack.

Court records do not list an attorney who could comment for Kringen.

Barnard was the longtime leader of the River Road Fellowship near Finlayson, about 90 miles north of Minneapolis. He was arrested in Brazil in 2015 after an international manhunt.