COLUMBIA - Attorney General Henry McMaster will lead the prosecution of a Darlington County man charged with abducting two teenage girls and raping them in an underground room behind his home.

McMaster's office, along with prosecutor Jay Hodge, will try the state's case against Kenneth Hinson, a Hartsville man accused of kidnapping two 17-year-old girls March 14 and taking them to a closet-sized underground chamber. Authorities say the girls were sexually assaulted and left bound inside the room, concealed under a shed, but managed to free themselves and walk to safety.

Hinson, 47, was captured after a four-day manhunt in the woods near his home.

"The crimes alleged in this case are troubling and this office will provide a vigorous prosecution," McMaster said Monday in a release. "If found guilty, the people of Darlington County and South Carolina will be able to rest easier knowing that this man will never harm another child for the rest of his life."

Hodge, a prosecutor for Chesterfield, Darlington, Dillon and Marlboro counties, asked McMaster's office to step in to provide the necessary labor and other resources the high-profile case will need, the release said.

If convicted, Hinson faces a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. He was previously convicted in 1991 of raping an 11-year-old girl.