Jury warned over 'massacre' details

The family were found dead at their home in Clydach

The jury in the trial of a man accused of murdering three generations of the same family has been warned over the "shocking" details of their "massacre".

David George Morris, 39, a scrap metal dealer from Craig Cefn Parc in the Swansea Valley, denies murdering Mandy Power, her 80-year-old mother, Doris, and two young daughters, Katie, 10, and Emily, eight.

David Morris denies the murder charges

Opening the prosecution at Swansea Crown Court, Patrick Harrington QC said Mr Morris had beaten all four to death with an iron pole at their home in Clydach, near Swansea, in June 1999.

He told the jurors they would have to "subdue their emotions" and prepare to be "shocked and appalled" by the details of the killings.

As details of the attack on the Power family were read out, family members in the public gallery wept.

"All four were the victim of the most grotesque violence and it is the prosecution case that the defendant killed them," Mr Harrington told the court.

"In each case, their heads were smashed with such force that massive bone damage was done to each of them.

"And it happened to the invalid grandmother, Doris Dawson, even as she lay in her bed.

"This was not simply murder, this was a massacre."

Mr Harrington said the defendant had lied repeatedly while being questioned by police in the days after the murders.

In each case, their heads were smashed with such force that massive bone damage was done to each of them

Prosecutor Patrick Harringon QC

The 39-year-old is alleged to have murdered Mandy Power's family after she spurned his sexual advances.

He is also accused of desecrating divorcee Mrs Power's body which was discovered by firefighters after her home was set alight.

Mr Harrington said Mr Morris had denied that a gold chain found at the murder scene was his before later acknowledging, shortly before the start of the trial, that it probably was his.

The prosecuting barrister also acknowledged that the "false finger of suspicion" had originally pointed towards Ms Power's lesbian lover and her husband.

Alison Lewis, a former police officer, and her husband Steven, who is still in the force, were both arrested in June 2000.

Mr Harrington said their homes, cars and clothes were thoroughly searched as a result of what he described as "rationally-based but unfounded suspicions".

The trial is expected to last three-and-a-half months.