Toby Studebaker

Toby Studebaker is a former U.S. Marine who abducted a 12-year-old British girl in 2003 after grooming her via the Internet and was jailed for four and a half years.

He was born in Constantine, Michigan,

According to an affidavit filed in 1998 in Michigan, a 12-year-old relative complained that Studebaker fondled her while they were wrestling, but it was dropped during the preliminary proceeding.

The case is credited with encouraging the creation of a law against child grooming over the Internet in Scotland, after criticism that British courts were unable to consider offenses involving sexual intercourse because the activity happened abroad.

David Harrower's play Blackbird was inspired by the events.