Marine Who Ran Off With Student Extradited

[thedrifter]

Marine Who Ran Off With Student Extradited
Thu Aug 21, 3:55 PM ET



By MELISSA EDDY, Associated Press Writer

MANCHESTER, England - A former U.S. Marine who allegedly abducted a 12-year-old British schoolgirl he met on the Internet was extradited to Britain on Thursday.


Toby Studabaker, 31, was put on a Royal Air Force jet in Frankfurt for the flight to Britain, where he faces charges of child abduction and inciting a child to an act of gross indecency.


He was to have a court hearing Thursday, police said. Studabaker was arrested in Frankfurt on July 16, four days after he and the girl flew from Britain to France.


Studabaker, of Constantine, Mich., did not contest his extradition when he went before a Frankfurt court. He said he did not have sex with the girl and maintained that he thought she was 18.


Judicial officials say Studabaker told the court he only learned police were looking for him and the girl after reading a newspaper in Strasbourg, France.


He took the girl to the airport in the southern German city of Stuttgart and called the FBI (news - web sites) in the United States. Agents told him to surrender at the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt.


He was arrested in downtown Frankfurt on his way to the consulate, hours after the girl left for home.


During their trip, the girl made two phone calls home to her parents, saying she was well and not being kept against her will. In the second, she told her parents she was preparing to return to Britain.


British police say Studabaker befriended the girl via the Internet, starting off in a chat room and progressing to e-mails and personal letters.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...missing_girl_3


Sempers,

Roger