Alleged child abuser kills himself as marshals close in, authorities say

Detectives felt they had a cast-iron case against Chris Ling

A violin teacher facing high-profile accusations of sexually assaulting girls in Britain shot himself to death early Tuesday as U.S. marshals with a warrant closed in on his Sherman Oaks home, officials said.

Christopher Ling, a teacher from Manchester, England, faced extradition to his homeland to answer accusations that he abused as many as 10 girls while he taught at a music school during the 1980s.

Agents from the U.S. Marshals Service were about to serve a warrant to take the 56-year-old Ling into custody at his home on Dixie Canyon Place, said Laura Vega, a spokeswoman for the marshals service in Los Angeles. Vega said that when the marshals arrived at the home at about 6 a.m., they discovered Ling dead of an apparently self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Vega said Ling had been running a talent company in Los Angeles.  (more...)

Alleged child abuser kills himself as marshals close in, authorities say

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