Toby Studabaker, 31, was arrested in the German city of Frankfurt Wednesday after disappearing with Shevaun Pennington, a case that sparked huge media attention.

The schoolgirl was safely returned to her parents in Manchester, northwest England, five days after running away to Paris with the former marine whom she met over the Internet.

Shevaun had been urged to return home in a series of press appeals designed by police psychologists, according to The Times, which like other British newspapers splashed the story across its front page.

Studabaker's arrest came after police sources revealed that child pornography had been downloaded from the Internet onto a computer used by the former soldier.

After consulting FBI psychologists as well as their own criminal profilers, Greater Manchester police had privately asked the media not to disclose the paedophile allegations against Studabaker, which they feared could alarm or endanger Shevaun, The Times reported.

Police also paid close attention to advice from psychologists who warned them that Shevaun was in love with the man she had spent hours conversing with every day via her computer.

Anxious not to antagonise Studabaker, detectives asked the press not to reveal FBI evidence that, contrary to the claims of his relatives, the ex-marine was fully aware Shevaun was only 12 during a year-long internet realtionship, The Times said.

The media were also asked not to publish details of a police investigation into Studabakers alleged sexual assault of his 12-year-old niece and a complaint that he gave a nine-year-old girl some "sex lotion" five years ago.

The Daily Telegraph reported that detectives had been aiming to reassure Studabaker that his best option was to let Shevaun go home.

After parting from her in Stuttgart, the former marine, who served in Afghanistan, did not resist arrest as police vans blocked off escape routes near the US consulate in Frankfurt, The Times reported.

The paper added that Greater Manchester police had sent two officers to Germany to apply to the German courts for Studabaker's extradition to Britain.

WAR.WIRE