INDIANAPOLIS -- Prosecutors have a mother and her three sons in connection with an attack on a 3-year-old girl.

Ivy Likens, 42, was charged Thursday with three counts of neglect of a dependent, accused of leaving the children she was hired to babysit alone with her 17-year-old son, a two-time convicted child molester.

The 17-year-old, Wayne Likens, was charged as an adult with counts of child molesting and criminal deviate conduct, among others. He was convicted in juvenile court of child molesting in 1996 and 1998.

Both were being held at the Marion County jail.

The girl remains in Methodist Hospital, where she's being treated for bites, bruises and a serious head injury, according to Marion County Prosecutor Scott Newman.

"What happened here is exactly what any fool would expect could happen," said Newman, who added that Ivy Likens had a duty to protect the children in her care from her eldest son.

The other two sons, ages 14 and 12, were charged as juveniles with child molesting, criminal deviate conduct and battery, although Newman said that he will seek to have the 14-year-old's trial moved to adult court.

Ivy Likens had been caring for her neighbor's children for about a week, according to court documents. Likens told police that she left the victim and her siblings, a 2-year-old boy and a 5-year-old girl, in her sons' care Tuesday morning while she delivered food to her husband at work.

Doctors compared the girl's injuries to those suffered in a car crash or a fall from a two-story building.

"We're certainly praying that she will survive these injuries and praying frankly that she doesn't remember very much about what happened to her," Newman said.