A Midland peer yesterday said he hoped a self-confessed killer mistaken for his brother was locked up.

Police in Thailand said Paul Chetwynd-Talbot had confessed to the brutal murder of his girlfriend on the Thai resort island of Phuket.

Chetwynd- Talbot is believed to have turned himself in to Thai police on Wednesday night when, it is said, he told them he had slashed his wrist out of guilt.

He was in hospital yesterday with serious wounds from his apparent suicide attempt but will be charged with the murder of primary school teacher Debra O'Hanlon as soon he has recovered, police said.

Chetwynd-Talbot shares the same name as the brother of the Earl of Shrewsbury, prompting suggestions that he could be related to the peer.

But Charles Chetwynd-Talbot - the 22nd Earl - said he had never heard of the man until this week but added that the suspect may have a link to his extended family.

The earl, whose family home is in Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, said: "My brother has been mistaken for him on a number of occasions. Paul thought that some distant cousin had adopted him.

"If this man has done what he is supposed to have done, I hope he is locked up as soon as possible."

Miss O'Hanlon, aged 31, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, was found in the early hours of Tuesday morning when police searched a guest house at the beach resort of Patong where she was staying.

It is thought she had flown to the resort to visit Chetwynd-Talbot, her exboyfriend, and was reported missing by friends when she failed to keep an appointment.

Police said a copy of Chetwynd-Talbot's passport, found in Miss O'Hanlon's room, showed that he was born in Bristol in 1973.

The couple used to run a bar in Phuket, a popular beach destination for Western travellers, but their business collapsed after the Boxing Day tsunami hit the Indian Ocean resort, killing thousands of people and crippling the tourist trade, police said.

The couple then returned to England, but Chetwynd-Talbot returned to Phuket in May to rebuild his business and O'Hanlon joined him last month.

Police said witnesses had reported seeing the couple having a heated quarrel a few days before Miss O'Hanlon's battered body was found in the guest house room she had been renting.

Miss O'Hanlon had taught Year Two children at the King's Cliffe Endowed School in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, but was due to start the new term as deputy headteacher at Wollaston School in her family's home town of Wellingborough, Northamptonshire.

Rachel Dempster was the head teacher at King's Cliffe and former deputy head at Woodnewton Junior where Miss O'Hanlon began her career.

She said: "Debra had everything to live for.

"She had worked for me since Easter at King's Cliffe, and was a very committed, dedicated teacher, who will be very sadly missed."