A NEW call to regulate the Internet has been made by the parents of a local schoolgirl abducted by a US marine she met online.

They want a clampdown on chatroom 'grooming' after Toby Studabaker lured their 12-year-old daughter with emails and ran away to Europe with her.

He gave the youngster vodka in a cheap Paris hotel before having sex with her.

When he appeared before Manchester Crown Court, Studabaker pleaded guilty to abducting the girl and to inciting her to commit gross indecency.

The girl cannot be named for legal reasons.

Her parents, however, issued the following statement: "First and foremost, we would all like to thank everyone who has supported us through this terrible ordeal.

"We are very happy with the outcome today, which hopefully sends out a strong message to the public about the seriousness of this case.

"We feel that this is only the tip of the iceberg and in order to stop this from happening again there must be many changes, as we would not like anyone else to go through the things we have.

"The time that our daughter was away from us was absolutely horrendous and we hope that we can now put it all behind us and move on with the rest of our lives."

The court heard that Studabaker, aged 33, from Michigan, flew to the French capital with the girl after meeting up with her at Manchester Airport on July 12 last year.

They booked into a hotel room which had twin beds. That night, they talked and went to bed separately.

But Beverley Lunt, prosecuting, said that the next evening they had sex on her bed. From Paris, the two travelled by train to Strasbourg and booked into another hotel

Studabaker had left America on July 11 and arrived at Manchester Airport the next morning, where he had agreed to meet the girl. She had told her parents she was going into Manchester with two schoolfriends.

Shortly after 11pm on July 12, the girl's parents reported her missing.

Police inquiries found a letter addressed to Studabaker, whom she called Taz, and diary entries referring to him.

Ms Lunt said: "One entry read: 'Taz loves me, he's coming over the end of June (I think). I'm going on holiday'."

The court heard that while at the Strasbourg hotel, the girl saw a CNN bulletin detailing her disappearance and showing a picture of Studabaker.

The next day, the pair took a train to Stuttgart and booked into the Hotel Mack using false names. The victim rang her mother that night and told her she was safe.

The next day Studabaker took the girl to the airport from where she flew back to Manchester via Amsterdam.

When the youngster arrived in Britain, police questioned her about her history of contact with the ex-serviceman.

S

he told police she had "met" the defendant on the Internet and had been communicating with him for about a year.

Two computers used by her -- one at home and another at school -- and four machines which Studabaker had access to were recovered by police and the FBI.

"The content of many of the e-mails and 'chats' show that the defendant knew (his victim) was 12-years-old in 2003," Ms Lunt said.

The 12-year-old told police that she had known Studabaker was 31 years old.

He initially thought she was 17, the court heard, although a few weeks after they first made contact, she told him she was only 11.

The case was adjourned until April 2 when Studabaker will be sentenced. He could face extradition to the US where a federal grand jury returned a four-count indictment against him in December 2003 on charges related to the sexual exploitation of a child.