Media scrum at Frankfurt hearing

By Ray Furlong BBC correspondent in Frankfurt

It took just ten minutes for Toby Studabaker to tell the district court in Frankfurt that he was ready to be extradited to the United Kingdom.

Toby Studabaker arrived at court in a white van

The media were kept outside the impressive court building in the centre of town - so the only details of the proceedings were relayed by court clerk Claus Michael-Ulrich.

"He agreed to the informal extradition, which means that he might be - but this is a decision for a higher court - in Manchester in the next week or two," he said.

"Right now he will be brought to a jail. He will stay there, and then there will be a decision about the extradition."

The short court hearing also shed some light on Mr Studabaker's travels with a 12-year-old girl.

Dressed in shorts and a T-shirt, the 31-year-old former marine insisted there were no sexual relations between them - and told how they came to Germany to give themselves up.

The key moment, Mr Studabaker claims, occurred when he picked up a newspaper, in Strasbourg, and found that they were being hunted by the police.

"He told the girl: The police are looking for us. Fly back to your parents," said Mr Michael-Ulrich.

Extradition jail

Mr Studabaker then called the FBI and asked what he should do.

"The FBI told him to go to Frankfurt to the US Consulate, and the German police will get you there."

Toby Studabaker spent the night in a Frankfurt jail

That part of the story at least is verifiably true. Mr Studabaker was arrested in the vicinity of the consulate on Wednesday lunchtime.

So for the next few days, Mr Studabaker will be kept at a jail on the edge of Frankfurt where foreigners awaiting extradition are kept.

He can expect much better conditions there than at comparable British institutions.

Single cells with flushing toilets and televisions are the norm.

Inmates also get plenty of opportunity to leave their cells for exercise.

Charges decision

Of course it is still conceivable that he might change his mind and decide to fight the extradition.

But this looks unlikely - Mr Studabaker seems to be a man who has made up his mind to clear his name in Britain.

Here in Germany, he has not even engaged a lawyer. This may change if the German authorities decide to press charges against him themselves - something that could also slow down the extradition process.

But this also appears to be unlikely.

"Prosecutors told me there are at the moment no charges against him.

"They do not know whether he committed a crime [in Germany] but at the moment they think there was no crime," said Mr Michael-Ulrich.

Limited coverage

In fact the case has excited little interest in Germany. As the crowds of journalists waited outside the courtroom, bemused passers-by asked what was going on.

There has been some coverage on commercial channels, but the main public service television station has hardly mentioned it.

In the newspapers, it warranted little more than a small column on the inside pages - if that.

There has been almost no mention of the wider issues raised by the affair, such as the dangers of internet chat rooms.

Of course what actually happened remains a mystery - and one that's probably not going to be elucidated here.

The full story of the pair's five-day odyssey across Europe will, it seems, emerge in a British courtroom.