A 45-year-old inmate serving an indefinite prison sentence for the 2004 murder of a girl in Okayama Prefecture was arrested Thursday in a separate case in which another girl was stabbed and seriously injured in the neighboring prefecture of Hyogo in 2006.

Hyogo police arrested the inmate, Kunihiko Katsuta, on suspicion of attempted murder. He has admitted to stabbing the girl with a knife but denied murderous intent, according to investigative sources.

As Katsuta has also hinted at his involvement in the 2007 murder of a 7-year-old girl in the Hyogo city of Kakogawa, police are searching for evidence.