The grandmother of an 8-year-old Tamaqua girl contacted police after learning about a “secret thing” involving her granddaughter and a 39-year-old Tamaqua man.

The child was worried about the possibility of having to go back and live with her alleged assailant and shared her “secret” with the grandmother in October. She explained that during the time she, her siblings and their mother all lived on Greenwood Street in Tamaqua, her mother’s boyfriend molested her.

The boyfriend was identified as Keith Sterling McFarland.

According to the affidavit filed by Tamaqua patrolman Thomas Rodgers, the family lived with McFarland from August 2013 to January 2015.

During that time, the child was left alone with McFarland while the rest of the family ran errands. He took her into the dining room and sexually assaulted her.

McFarland then told her she couldn’t tell anyone about what happened as it was “their secret.”

She locked herself in her bedroom until her mother came home.

She didn’t say anything because she “was afraid to tell.”

McFarland was charged with rape of a child, indecent assault on a person less than 13, indecent exposure and corruption of minors.

He was arraigned Thursday morning before District Magisterial Judge Stephen Bayer, who set bail at $50,000 straight. Unable to post immediate bond, McFarland was taken to the Schuylkill County Prison in Pottsville.