JonBenet suspect released

THE former suspect in the JonBenet Ramsey killing left jail after a US judge dismissed child pornography charges against him.

John Mark Karr was ordered to be released immediately by Sonoma County Superior Court Judge Rene Chouteau, saying prosecutors did not have enough evidence to take the case to trial.

His release ends a two-month legal process after he was extradited from Thailand on suspicion of killing the six-year-old beauty queen.

He did not comment to reporters as he left the Sonoma County jail in Santa Rosa, California.

Karr, 41, was returned to the state last month to face the five-year-old pornography case after DNA evidence cleared him of killing the girl in her Boulder, Colorado, home in 1996.

The pornography case fell apart almost as quickly, as investigators admitted losing computer evidence that was seized from Karr in April 2001.

Defence lawyers tried twice unsuccessfully to get the charges dismissed and were seeking to have evidence barred from trial when prosecutors gave up.

Karr had fled the state after being released from jail in 2001 and had been living in Bangkok until his arrest which caused a sensation when he said he was with JonBenet when she died.