Irish ports on alert for missing 12-year-old and marine

Irish authorities have been put on alert for the missing 12-year-old British girl and the ex-US Marine who ran away together …

Irish authorities have been put on alert for the missing 12-year-old British girl and the ex-US Marine who ran away together and who may have taken a flight from Paris last Saturday.

A Garda spokesman said: "The police [in Britain] have been in contact with us with particulars of the two people and these have been circulated to all ports and points of entry."

Howevever, police in Britain insist there is "nothing to substantiate" reports today that the child and the 31-year-old man may have travelled to Ireland.

Detectives hunting Shevaun Pennington and Toby Studabaker, who met on the internet, now believe she only stayed in Paris for about an hour before flying to Liverpool airport.

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A French police spokesman said the former US Marine Toby Studabaker did not travel to Liverpool with her.

Greater Manchester Police stressed it was only one of a number of possibilities they were examining as the search was stepped up in Europe for the pair, who met on the Internet.

Officers from the force are to fly to France. The move comes as French police said there was no evidence to suggest Studabaker and the missing Wigan youngster were in France.

A source in one of the security agencies helping in the hunt said it was possible the French based their stance on immigration control and that the couple may not have passed through.

A spokeswoman told ireland.comthere was nothing to substantiate reports that the girl and the former marine had travelled to Ireland. She said police were in contact with all other forces around Europe, including the Garda and Interpol.

Police in Manchester remain adamant the pair, who met up on Saturday, were on the flight from Heathrow to Paris Charles de Gaulle airport later that evening.

A spokesman said they were looking at the possibility that they may have then flown on to another destination.

Detectives are also looking into reports that Studabaker, who left the Marines last month, had faced sex assault accusations with an under-age girl in the US in the late 1990s. The alleged case was not pursued.

Earlier today his family urged the ex-soldier, who was based in North Carolina and had served in Afghanistan, to give himself up and return the youngster.

His brother Leo said he had told them he was going to meet a 19-year-old girl and had even talked of marriage and children.

He said: "If he had known she wasn't the age she said she was, he wouldn't have agreed to meet her."

Additional reporting: PA