888.COM ASKED FOR FINANCIAL RECORDS

4 April 2008

US police seek assistance in murder investigation


The US publication MetroWest Daily News reports that state prosecutors have requested the financial records of a player at the Gibraltar-based 888.com online gambling group. The officials are involved in a murder investigation in which an accused named as Neil Entwistle (28) is allegedly involved.

Entwhistle reportedly had an account with Casino On Net in the month before he is accused of killing his wife and infant daughter in the States two years ago.

Prosecutor Michael Fabbri has apparently sent a 7 page document to Gibraltar requesting the company's financial records regarding Entwhistle. The prosecution is seeking the records to help prove that Entwistle's financial problems were his motive for shooting his wife Rachel (27) and daughter, Lillian Rose, 9 months, on January 20, 2006 in their 6 Cubs Path, Hopkinton, home.

The prosecutor's communication is a legal document sent from one country to another requesting testimony, documents or evidence in a court case.

In the letter, Prosecutor Fabbri claimed that Entwistle opened the gambling account on December 15, 2005, approximately one month before the murders. The prosecutor said Entwistle lost hundreds of dollars that month, which he claims is key evidence in building the motive for the murders.

"The prosecutor needs records relating to this account to help establish that Entwistle had financial difficulties and that these difficulties affected his state of mind and provided him with a motive to commit murder,'' Fabbri wrote in the letter.

The letter also lays out, with no new details, the case the prosecution is making against Entwistle.

Entwistle is accused of killing his wife and daughter to hide a secret life of debt, online business scams and sex. Authorities say he stole a gun from his in-laws' Carver home, then used it to shoot his wife and daughter in their bed.

He then drove to Carver, returned the gun and flew to England, returning to his Nottinghamshire home, where he was later arrested and extradited to Massachusetts, authorities allege.

Entwistle told authorities he discovered his wife and daughter's bodies, considered killing himself, but could not go through with it. He said he went home to England to be with his family.

Entwistle is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and the illegal possession of a firearm. He is being held without bail in an American jail. If convicted, he faces a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.

The trial is scheduled to begin June 2.

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