Ex-marine deported after sentence

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/england/manchester/6717969.stm

Version 0 of 1.

A former US marine who admitted child abduction offences and inciting a child to commit an act of gross indecency has been deported to the United States.

Toby Studabaker, 35, from Michigan, abducted a 12-year-old girl from the Wigan area in July 2003. He had met her on the internet.

In April 2004 he was given two sentences of four-and-a-half years each to run concurrently for the offences.

The ex-marine, who left Manchester on Saturday, now faces charges in the US.

He had "groomed" the girl - who cannot be named for legal reasons - online and visited her in Manchester before flying with her to Paris in July 2003.

Further charges

The pair stayed in a hotel, where they had sex, for two days before travelling on by train to Strasbourg.

Mr Studabaker was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany, and was extradited to the UK the following month.

He now faces charges in the US of transporting a child across international borders for the purpose of sexually exploiting that child and travelling across international borders with the intent to sexually exploit a child.

Mr Studabaker, who comes from Three Rivers in Michigan, also faces one count of sexually exploiting a child in a foreign country and another count of using the internet to entice a child to engage in criminal sexual activity.

The charges carry a maximum penalty of between 20 and 30 years each.