South Carolina ? A man sought by police in connection with the rape of two teenage girls in an underground room behind his Hartsville home had been recommended for the state’s sexually violent predator program, officials said Thursday.

Just before his release from prison in 2000, prosecutors recommended Kenneth G. Hinson be indefinitely committed to the violent predator program, but the judge rejected it.

Authorities say that late Monday, Hinson, 47, took the two 17-year-old girls one at a time from a nearby mobile home while they were sleeping.

Hinson is wanted on kidnapping and criminal sexual conduct charges. He had to register as a sex offender because of a 1991 conviction in South Carolina for second-degree criminal sexual conduct.

In a 2000 decision, Circuit Judge Edward Cottingham said authorities failed to show the man was capable of committing a sexual offense in the future.