Page last updated at 22:47 GMT, Thursday, 12 June 2008 23:47 UK

Accused weeps at bodies footage

Neil Entwistle cried in court as video footage of the bodies was shown to the jury

A British man on trial in Massachusetts for killing his wife and daughter cried in court as a jury was shown video footage of their bodies.


He cried and often covered his face as the jurors were shown a 20-minute police video of the murder scene.

It was the first time he has expressed any emotion in court.

Judge Diane Kottmyer, at the Middlesex County Superior Court, warned jurors the video, taken by crime scene investigators, would be both "upsetting and distressing".

Mr Entwistle broke down in tears soon after the video started and after it had finished, defence lawyer Stephanie Page asked for a tissue to give to her client.

DNA found

The film showed the US investigators' progress through the house before showing the master bedroom.

Crime scene examiners removed the duvet which covered the two bodies, the pillow which covered the baby's head and part of her mother's face, and a white sheet which covered the bodies themselves.

Jurors were also shown the murder weapon, a .22 Colt revolver, with its brown grip and long black muzzle.

Police Sergeant Mary Ritchie holds the murder weapon
Mr Entwistle's DNA was found on the murder weapon

The court heard Mr Entwistle's DNA was found on an ammunition container, a gun lock and the gun's grip.

The jury has heard the post-mortem examination found Mrs Entwistle was shot in the forehead at close range and baby Lillian was killed with a bullet that passed through her abdomen and lodged above her mother's left breast as she cradled her.

Outside the court Elliot Weinstein, defending Mr Entwistle, criticised some members of the media who had reported his client was laughing and smiling while the video was played in court.


Prosecutors have told the jury he had a secret life - he had been thousands of pounds in debt, had visited websites offering casual sex, and searched online for ways to kill people and take his own life.


The trial continues.

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