BAKER - Deputies have arrested a man accused of picking up two girls who ran away from a group home and sexually assaulting at least one of them.

According to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office, the encounter happened in July after the two girls ran away from the home in Baker. One of the victims, a 13-year-old girl, told deputies she and the other victim were walking along Charles Street around 10 p.m. when a man pulled up alongside them in a vehicle.

The driver, identified as 36-year-old Harold Norton, agreed to give them a ride to Walmart. After stopping there, the three made a few more stops. Along the way, the girls say Horton asked if they were virgins.

Eventually, Horton brought the girls to his home and told them they could shower there.

Once inside, however, Horton allegedly made sexual advances toward the girls, telling them to take off their clothes and forcing them to grab his genitalia. The teens say he also grabbed them inappropriately, offered them marijuana and cut an unknown pill in half, forcing each of them to take one.

According to the affidavit, the girls fled once they noticed Horton retrieve a condom. Deputies later met with the victims at an area hospital and they gave them the suspect's address.

Deputies made repeated attempts to contact Horton but were unable to reach him until Monday, when he was taken into custody.

Horton was booked into the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on one count of sexual battery.