Doubts grow over JonBenet murder confession as suspect is flown to US

The man reported to have confessed to the murder of JonBenet Ramsey, the six-year-old beauty pageant queen who was strangled in her home in Colorado 10 years ago, was flown to the United States from Thailand yesterday to face a media frenzy and an uncertain legal future, as doubts multiplied about the validity of his confession.

John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old expatriate school teacher with a history of fascination with murdered children, looked to enjoy his treatment as a minor celebrity as Thai and US officials escorted him to the airport in Bangkok and showed him to his business-class seat, where he dined on king prawns and champagne. Since this was not an official extradition, he was not handcuffed and wore a shirt and tie.

The head of the Thai immigration police, who sat in on Mr Karr's confession after his arrest last Wednesday, said he had provided a meal of Kentucky Fried Chicken at his detainee's request.

In Boulder, Colorado, journalists and news crews fought over who would have the right to attend Mr Karr's first court hearing, even though no date had been set. His plane was due to touch down in Los Angeles last night. Officials in Boulder said they did not know how long it would take for him to reach Colorado, but said it might be a few days.

No information linking Mr Karr to JonBenet Ramsey's murder has been made public except for his confession, and even that is rife with contradictions. Mr Karr told reporters at the Bangkok airport he would not speak to them, because they wrongly reported that he confessed to murder, when all he had acknowledged was that the girl had died in an "accident" while he was present.

Prosecutors in Boulder have not celebrated his arrest so much as sounded a note of caution. They are expected to take a DNA sample from Mr Karr to try to establish a match with traces of DNA found under JonBenet's fingernails and on her underpants. Legal experts say that a match would give the district attorney a case to prosecute. No match would almost certainly result in Mr Karr's release - although he also faces outstanding charges in California of possessing child pornography, which first prompted him to leave the US five years ago.