Ex-Marine: No Sex With Girl

A former U.S. Marine facing charges of abducting a 12-year-old English schoolgirl told a German court Thursday that he did not have sex with the girl, a court spokesman said.

Toby Studabaker, 31, of Constantine, Mich., claimed he thought the girl, who can't be named for legal reasons, was 18 years old but would not comment further, said Frankfurt state court spokesman Claus Michael Ullrich.

Ullrich quoted Studabaker as saying: "I had no sexual intercourse with her."

Studabaker was arrested Wednesday for alleged abduction under an international warrant in Frankfurt on his way to surrender at the U.S. consulate, hours after the girl departed for home from the southern German city of Stuttgart.

The pair, who met in an Internet chat room, left Britain together Saturday on a flight to Paris.

They spent two nights in France before Studabaker took the girl to Stuttgart airport Wednesday morning and put her on the plane, Hildegard Becker-Toussaint, a spokeswoman for Frankfurt prosecutors, said.

Appearing in a closed court session wearing shorts and a T-shirt, Studabaker said he only learned the pair were being sought after reading a newspaper in Strasbourg, France, Ullrich said.

He then took the girl to the Stuttgart airport and called the FBI in the United States, who told him to surrender at the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt, Ullrich said.

Studabaker told the court he would not contest extradition and German prosecutors have ruled out any charges in Germany, meaning extradition "could happen very soon," Ullrich said.

Studabaker already has been questioned by British police who traveled to Germany.

In Britain, Greater Manchester Police said they expected to speak with the girl later Thursday about her five days with Studabaker. The schoolgirl and her parents spent Wednesday night at an undisclosed location, away from the family home in Lowton, northern England, to escape media attention.