BRITAIN: A former US Marine who ran off with a 12-year-old British girl he met in an Internet chat room was arrested in Germany yesterday and the girl was reunited with her family.
Mr Toby Studabaker (31) was detained in Frankfurt, bringing to an end a four-day international manhunt involving detectives in Britain, France, Germany, Ireland and the United States.
British police said they were sending two officers to Germany and will apply for Mr Studabaker's extradition to Britain, where Ms Shevaun Pennington was reunited with her distraught parents.
A German magistrate said any extradition request would be studied. He expected Mr Studabaker to be brought before a judge this afternoon.
Shevaun left her home in Wigan, near Manchester, on Saturday. It emerged she had gone to meet Mr Studabaker and the pair had flown to Paris together.
On the previous day, he had flown from Detroit to Manchester to be with her.
Police say they had been in touch with each other for some time via e-mail.