Entwistle agrees to US extradition

Neil Entwistle, the British man whose wife and baby daughter were found shot dead in Massachusetts last month, has agreed to return to the US to face murder charges.

Mr Entwistle, 27, was arrested in Royal Oak tube station in London yesterday. He appeared before Bow Street Magistrates Court today, where he agreed to return to the US.

Judith Sneddon, his solicitor, told reporters outside the court that Mr Entwistle could be returned to the US within "a matter of days".

She said that he wanted to co-operate with the US authorities "in any way" and said that he was "anxious" that any delay would cause additional stress to both his late wife's and his own family.

Mr Entwistle has been accused of murdering his American-born wife Rachel and their nine-month-old daughter Lillian. The bodies of Mrs Entwistle and baby Lillian were found in the couple's home in Hopkinton, Massachusetts on January 22. Both had been shot dead.

Mr Entwistle left the US before the bodies were discovered and returned to the UK, where he has been staying with his parents at their home in Nottinghamshire.

Police had initially described him as a 'person of interest' in the case, but did not say that he was a suspect.

At a press conference in the US, Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said that police believed Mr Entwistle might have murdered his family in an intended murder-suicide, because of serious financial problems.

Mr Entwistle, an unemployed computer programmer, had been in debt in the UK before moving to the US with his wife shortly after their daughter was born. It has also been reported that attempts to establish businesses via the internet and the eBay auction site had failed.

Ms Coakley said that evidence suggested that Mr Entwistle had shot Rachel and Lillian with a gun belonging to his father-in-law, Joseph Materazzo.

If Mr Entwistle is convicted of the murders, he will face life imprisonment. Massachusetts is one of the few US states that does not have the death penalty.

(KMcA)