A British man accused of killing his wife and baby girl spent the month before their deaths trying to meet American women on the internet to check whether they were better in bed, a court was told yesterday.

A computer expert told the trial outside Boston that Neil Entwistle, 29, wrote on one swinging website: “I am an Englishman just moved over to the US. I am looking for 1-on-1 discrete \ relationships with American ladies and always aim to make all experiences ones to remember.

“I’m looking to meet American women of all ages,” he said. “I need to confirm what friends have told me that you are much better in bed than the women over the ocean, as from there. We both want the same thing so there is little point dragging it out here.”

Mr Entwistle, an unemployed computer programmer from Worksop, Nottinghamshire, faces life in prison without parole if convicted of killing his American wife, Rachel, and their nine-month-old daughter, Lillian.

Prosecutors claim that Mr Entwistle shot them at their home in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, because he was dissatisfied sexually and facing financial ruin. The defence, however, has argued that Mr Entwistle was a loving husband and devoted father.

Detective Lawrence James told the court yesterday that Mr Entwistle used his credit card to pay about £10 for a month’s membership on the Adult Friend Finder website, a “sex and swinger personals community”. His membership expired on January 21, 2006 — the day he fled to Britain.

Mr Entwistle’s parents — Yvonne, a school dinner lady, and Cliff, a district councillor — wiped tears away as they listened to their son’s internet profile being read out in court. Mr James also told the jury that someone read e-mails associated with Mr Entwistle’s username “ent” at 12.30pm on January 20, 2006 — less than an hour and a half after prosecutors believe that Mr Entwistle shot his wife and child.

The police computer specialist said that an analysis of Mr Entwistle’s laptop computer showed that it was used to search for local escort services two days before the killings. Mr Entwistle’s username was also used to search for the “best” way to kill someone four days before the deaths, he said.

Jurors were shown a diagram of recommended “strike points” in a person’s chest that was accessed after an internet search for “how to kill with a knife” shortly after 11.30pm on January 16, 2006.

Someone using Mr Entwistle’s “ent” username also searched for “knife in neck kill” shortly after 4.15pm the next day. The same user also searched for “quick suicide method” the same day.

The coroner testified that the mother and child were face-to-face and died quickly.Later, Detective Constable Ronald Hay, of New Scotland Yard’s extradition unit, told the court that Mr Entwistle had a blue bag containing a newspaper cutting, notebook and correspondence when he was arrested at Royal Oak underground station in London on February 9, 2006.

Mr Entwistle also had a newspaper cutting showing adverts for escort services, taken from the previous day’s Daily Sport. The trial continues.

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