Convicted rapist denied bond in girls’ assaults

? A local magistrate denied bond Saturday for a convicted rapist charged with abducting two teenage girls and assaulting them in an underground room behind his home.

Kenneth G. Hinson was captured Friday evening after a four-day manhunt in the woods around his Darlington County neighborhood, about 20 miles northwest of Florence.

County Magistrate Deatrice Curtis denied bond on charges of criminal sexual assault, kidnapping and assault and battery with intent to kill.

The two 17-year-old girls had been sleeping in a nearby home late Monday when Hinson, 47, allegedly kidnapped each girl and assaulted her in a room under a shed on his property, police said. The girls were left bound inside the room but managed to wriggle free and walk to safety.

At Saturday’s hearing, Darlington County Chief Deputy Tom Gainey described the room’s dire conditions, saying “we have found no space that would have supplied any air supply while they were in that compartment.”