A man allegedly caught molesting a seven-year-old girl in a McDonald’s car park was beaten up by the child’s carer at the scene of the crime, it has been reported.

Spencer Joyce was arrested on suspicion of capital sexual battery after being beaten by the girl’s guardian at a McDonald’s in Hudson, Florida.

The caregiver had driven with him and the girl to the fast food restaurant at about 11.45pm on Monday, WFTS reported.

Joyce, 60, struck when the youngster’s guardian went inside the restaurant to buy food, leaving the pair together in the car, it is said.

Members of the Pasco Sheriff’s Office along with major crimes and forensics officers were called to the McDonald’s on State Road 52, where Joyce, of Havana Avenue, New Port Richey, was arrested.

He told police the victim had “asked him for help to urinate and denied this incident as being sexual in nature,” according to WFTS.