Clydach murder trial restarts

Three generations of the family died in the attack

The trial of a man accused of killing four members of the same South Wales family has been restarted after one of the original jurors was taken ill.

Judge Mr Justice Butterfield discharged the first jury on Wednesday, after one of the jurors apparently fainted on Tuesday while watching video evidence of the murder scene.

A new jury - including nine of the original jurors - has been sworn in and has been listening to the opening prosecution statement from Patrick Harrington QC.

Scrap metal dealer David George Morris, 39, from Craig Cefn Parc in the Swansea Valley, denies murdering Mandy Power, 34, her mother Doris Dawson, 80, and her daughters Katie, 10 and Emily, eight.

All four were found beaten to death at the burned-out home they shared in Kelvin Road, Clydach, on 27 June 1999.

Mr Justice Butterfield called for the video to be stopped and the case adjourned on Tuesday as the man was taken to the casualty department of the city's Singleton Hospital.

He told the court on Wednesday that the jury member was unfit to continue sitting in on the case, so the trial had to be halted.

He criticised the jury system in England and Wales which does not allow alternate jurors to take over in such circumstances.