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Old July 16th 03, 05:25 AM
Kenny Koala
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Default 12-year-old English girl runs off with 31-year-old U.S. Marine

"StanL" wrote in message ...
www.thescotsman.co.uk
Tue 15 Jul 2003

Runaway Shevaun 'claimed to be 19'
DAN MCDOUGALL CRIME CORRESPONDENT

SHEVAUN Pennington's parents had heeded the warnings and monitored
their daughter's use of the internet very carefully. The family
computer was kept in the kitchen, they talked to Shevaun about her use
of chat-rooms and advised her not to give her real name when talking
online.

The 12-year-old spent hours online, but Stephen and Joanna Pennington
were not unduly worried.

"We genuinely thought she was speaking to people her own age," said
her mother, after it emerged that Shevaun had run away with a United
States marine, aged 31, who she had met through the internet.

"This is the last thing we thought would happen."

Mrs Pennington said she had spoken to her daughter recently about the
dangers of the net.

She added: "We take a real interest in everything our daughter does,
and we had a long talk with her about her internet use and told her
never to use her real name and address when she goes online."

But last night it appeared that Shevaun had said she was 19 in her
internet correspondence with Toby Studabaker - and that the pair had
planned a meeting at Manchester Airport well in advance.


I thought the only way to get to Manchester was to
fly to London, and then either drive, or take a train or bus
to Manchester. When I covered the Commonwealth Games last year,
for my E-zine, I flew to London, and then drove to Manchester,
becuase I thought that was the only way to go. I did not know
you could fly to Manchester.