English Schoolgirl Reunited With Parents

Shevaun Pennington, the 12-year-old schoolgirl who ran away to Paris with a former U.S. Marine she met on the Internet, was reunited with her parents Wednesday after he was arrested in Germany, British police said.

The girl was already on her way back to Britain when Toby Studabaker, 31, was arrested in downtown Frankfurt, police said.

Police said Shevaun flew back to Britain from Stuttgart via Amsterdam. Officers from Greater Manchester Police met her at the airport around 2:30 p.m., an hour after Studabaker had been arrested.

She was then taken to a police station in Leigh, near her home, for a reunion with her parents, Stephen and Joanna Pennington.

Shevaun left Britain in the company of 31-year-old Studabaker on Saturday.

Studabaker “was arrested for abduction under the power of an international arrest warrant,” police Superintendent Peter Mason told reporters.

Police sources said images of child pornography were discovered on Studabaker’s computer during investigations into the missing pair. The sources also said they had evidence, again taken from Studabaker’s computer, that the ex-Marine knew that Shevaun was 12, not 18 or 19 as he had claimed to relatives.

Greater Manchester Police had said Studabaker, 31, had no previous convictions.

The pair had last been traced to Charles de Gaulle airport near Paris, where they arrived on a flight Saturday.

Shevaun made two phone calls home to her parents in Lowton, northwest England, on Tuesday and earlier Wednesday, 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.

“I am not aware that she has been harmed in any away, but again we haven’t had the opportunity to speak with her yet,” Mason said.

Christian Brockert, a spokesman for the Federal Criminal authorities in Frankfurt, said local police arrested Studabaker Wednesday afternoon in downtown Frankfurt.

The ex-Marine told police upon his arrest that the girl was in an airplane on her way back to Britain.

German authorities are now checking whether the man will be extradited, or whether he could be pressed on charges of child abuse here, Brockert said.

Mason said that British police were “looking at bringing him back to this country.”

Earlier Wednesday, Shevaun’s mother Joanna Pennington said she was “relieved” her daughter was still with Studabaker, who police say befriended the schoolgirl via the Internet.

“I’m actually quite relieved that he’s still with her in a way because he’s obviously helping to look after her. As long as she comes back, she can even come back with him, I’m not bothered,” the mother told Sky News TV.

Mason said Shevaun believed she was in a relationship with Studabaker.

“It is a relationship that has developed over a number of months, starting off on Internet chat lines and progressing through to e-mails and personal letters.”