NEIL ENTWISTLE, the Briton accused of shooting dead his American wife and their baby daughter, is expected to return to the US without delay after agreeing to be extradited to stand trial for murder.
The unemployed computer programmer, who was arrested in London on Thursday on an extradition warrant, was remanded in custody pending his removal. Lawyers said later that he had decided not to contest extradition partly to avoid causing further distress to his parents-in-law and parents.
Mr Entwistle, 27, is accused of shooting his wife, Rachel, also 27, in the head before turning a handgun on Lillian, nine months, as she lay on the bed beside her mother at their home in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, three weeks ago in an aborted suicide attempt.
Instead of turning the gun on himself, he is then alleged to have covered his tracks before fleeing to England and staying with his parents in Worksop, Nottinghamshire.
During a three-minute hearing at Bow Street Magistrates’ Court, in London, his counsel, Ben Brandon, said that he wished to be returned to the US “as soon as possible”.
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District Judge Anthony Evans said that Mr Entwistle, who denies murder, had to waive his right to extradition proceedings. He asked: “You are agreeing to be sent immediately to the US and there will be no extradition proceedings?”
Mr Entwistle, who was wearing a dark tracksuit top and grey trousers, replied confidently: “That’s right, yes.”
Judith Seddon, Mr Entwistle’s legal representative, said outside court: “He has consented [to extradition] at the earliest opportunity because he wants to co-operate with the authorities in any way he can.
“He is anxious that any delay could cause his late wife’s family, and his own, additional distress. He believes he will receive a fair and proper hearing in the United States on these very serious allegations.
“He has never changed his mind. He was always inclined to consent to extradition. He was going to think about it overnight with our advice. And overnight, after reserving his position, he has consented.” Asked whether he would fight the allegations against him, Ms Seddon declined to comment.
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Last night an order for Mr Entwistle’s return to America was signed by a Home Office minister and his departure was said to be imminent.
His wife’s family said earlier that they were “deeply saddened” and shocked by his arrest over the killings. Joe Flaherty, a spokesman for the family, said it was “incomprehensible” that Rachel and Lillian’s love and trust of Mr Entwistle could have been “betrayed in the ultimate act of violence”.
Martha Coakley, the district attorney for Middlesex County, Massachusetts, told journalists in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that Mr Entwistle had been having financial problems before the killings and had no apparent income to support his family. She said that a reporter’s suggestion at the press conference that Mr Entwistle was a “desperate man” was “not an unfair conclusion”. He has been linked to a website offering what appeared to be get-rich-quick pyramid schemes.
Ms Coakley said investigators believed that Mr Entwistle had carried out the murders with a gun he had taken from his father-in-law’s collection and later secretly returned.
Mr Entwistle is said to have told American police, in a telephone conversation from England, that he had found his wife and baby dead when he returned home from a morning errand. According to police sources, he said that he was so distraught that he tried to slash his throat. The disclosure was made when a US district court released the arrest warrant affidavit filed by police in Massachusetts.
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As well as two charges of murder, he also faces accusations of illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition.