LONDON (July 15)


- British police officers flew to Paris on Tuesday to hunt for a former U.S. Marine and a 12-year-old British schoolgirl who are thought to have run away to France together after meeting on the Internet.

British police said they doubted an assertion by French police that the girl had returned to Britain without him.

Schoolgirl Shevaun Pennington left home on Saturday to meet Toby Studabaker, 31, who had flown to Britain from the United States on Friday night. Police say the pair met online and had been in contact for some time via e-mail and letter.

After initially saying the girl had never entered France, French police said they believed she had spent time at Paris's Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport and then boarded an EasyJet flight to Liverpool the same day without the ex-Marine.

"She left with a group which did not seem to include the name of her American friend," a French police spokesman said.

But Britain's Greater Manchester Police said the French may have mistaken her identity.

"We have been informed by Interpol that an S. Pennington did leave Charles de Gaulle airport at about 10:45 on Saturday evening," inspecting officer Peter Mason said.

"However, we are very, very dubious that that is our Shevaun Pennington, as that S. Pennington was part of a group of five persons," he said. "We're...making enquiries with EasyJet and obviously John Lennon airport in Liverpool and also Charles de Gaulle airport."

He said two British police officers had flown to France on Tuesday afternoon.

Studabaker's family said he had talked about going to Ireland. His brother Leo told Britain's Good Morning Television the ex-Marine had no idea Shevaun was so young. He said they had discussed marriage and having children.

"They had talked of possibly marriage and kids and that's part of the reason why he went to Europe, to meet her and find out exactly what she wanted to do," he said.

INTERNET GROOMING

Studabaker was discharged from the U.S. military on June 30 after serving for more than three years. He was a lance corporal based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.

He left Detroit late on Friday and flew to Manchester, northern England, near the girl's home.

The schoolgirl's disappearance has rekindled concern in Britain over so-called "grooming" by pedophile adults who prey on children via the Internet.

Home Secretary David Blunkett addressed those concerns in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

"There isn't a parent who knows and understands that their child will use the Internet who doesn't have great sympathy with them (Shevaun's parents) in terms of what has happened and the way it has happened," Blunkett said.

In France, television stations flashed up pictures of the pair in an effort to find witnesses who might have spotted them.

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