A Briton accused of murdering his wife and baby daughter made an internet search on 'how to kill with a knife' just six days before their bodies were found, a US court heard on Tuesday.

"A search was made on Google.com. You search by key words. There were six words. 'How to kill with a knife'," Lawrence James, a forensic computer expert and 20-year police officer, testified in Neil Entwistle's double-murder trial.

Entwistle (29) from Worksop in the East Midlands, has pleaded not guilty to murdering his wife Rachel (27) and their nine-month-old daughter Lillian at their Massachusetts home in the United States two years ago using his father-in-law's gun.

James told the court that the Google search was made 16 January 2006, six days before Rachel and Lillian Entwistle were found shot dead at their home in an upscale Boston suburb on 22 January 2006.

On the eighth day of Entwistle's trial, Assistant District Attorney Daniel Bennett told the court that records showed the suspect had searched the Internet for female escorts only hours before the murders.

Judge Diane Kottmyer excluded as evidence a naked picture of Entwistle that he allegedly posted on the internet to attract "fun" sex partners, but allowed evidence suggesting he joined a sex swingers site from England in August 2005.

His wife and baby had already moved to the United States from England at that time, and Bennett said: "Presenting that evidence would refute statements that Rachel Entwistle knew what was going on the Internet."

He said the defendant logged on to a mailbox on the sex site, "Adult Sex Finder," on 20 January 2006, using the username "ent."

Entwistle has remained blank-faced during the trial except when shown the crime scene video of the two bodies, when he broke down in tears. He sits with his family on the opposite side of the courtroom to his late wife's parents.

Forensic experts this week presented the dead baby's tiny pyjamas, which had a bullet hole straight through them and were soaked in dried blood stains. They said gun powder residue suggested the bullet hit her abdomen at "close range."

Rachel Entwistle's green pyjama top was stained with the baby's blood, the scientists said, while her floral underpants revealed semen stains.

The defendant's mother Yvonne, who has had to be physically supported by her husband during the case, began weeping at the sight of the clothing.

Entwistle was in England when the bodies were found and did not return to the United States for their burial in a single casket, court documents show.

Two Massachusetts florists, a mother and daughter, testified that Entwistle phoned from England to order "A single orange rose and white lily" and requested the card read "My Orange Rose and My Lily For Always XOXOXO."

Two British college friends of the defendant also testified in the trial about his behaviour when he was in England after the murders.

Benjamin Prior recounted how Entwistle had protested his innocence in the killings, and how he had claimed to have bought a house and BMW in the United States, when in fact he had only rented them both.

The three friends had dinner together and went to a movie. Defence attorney Elliot Weinstein asked Prior if he saw Neil as "totally devastated" to which he replied: "He was playing with his wedding band."

The case is expected to end by 3 July.

AFP