'Massacre' victim's lover weeps in court

Three generations of the family died in the attack

A former police officer - once a prime suspect in the investigation into the deaths of an entire family - wept as she gave evidence to the murder trial jury.

Alison Lewis, 35, from Pontypridd, south Wales, told the jury at Swansea Crown Court on Tuesday she had been hurt by allegations she killed her lesbian lover Mandy Power along with the rest of her family.

Alison Lewis arrives at Swansea Crown Court

Mrs Lewis admitted she had lied to her husband to cover up her affair with mother-of-two Mandy Power.

David Morris, 39, a scrap metal dealer from Craig Cefn Parc in the Swansea Valley, denies murdering Mrs Power, 34, her two young children Katie, 10 and Emily, eight and their invalid grandmother Doris Dawson, who was 80.

The family had been bludgeoned to death with an iron pole, and later fires set around the house.

The prosecution alleges Mr Morris carried out the killings after his sexual advances were rejected by Mrs Power.

At one stage during the inquiry into the murders in June 1999 Alison Lewis - and her police sergeant husband - were arrested on suspicion of the murders.

Both were later released without charge.

David Morris denies four counts of murder

Mrs Lewis, herself the mother of twin girls, told the packed courtroom that she had been hurt by allegations that she did not like Mrs Power's young daughters.

She said she loved children and described Mrs Power's mother Doris Dawson as a "sweet old lady".

The former Welsh woman's rugby player - she was capped seven times - said she has been sporty from an early teenager and had been Welsh and British champion at a martial art.

Mrs Lewis told the jury she had had a crush on women from her early teens, but only realised she was gay after a sexual encounter with a woman on a rugby trip to Aberystwyth.

Katie Power was one of the child victims

Shortly afterwards she said she met Mandy Power at a tarot reading evening at her house in Kelvin Road, Clydach, and they began a relationship.

She said she thought Mandy Power was "attractive, funny and very bubbly".

The court heard Mrs Lewis has left the police force because of the stress she had suffered dealing with a suicide case.

Earlier on Tuesday two witnesses told the murder trial have they saw the David Morris wearing a gold necklace similar to one found at the scene of the family massacre

The trial has already been told that Mr Morris admitted the necklace was "probably" his days before the case opened last month.

The prosecution has said the Power family had been subjected to an "orgy of savagery".

Mandy Power's former lover Alison Lewis

The trial which is its second week, has already heard that the family were beaten to death with an iron bar with Patrick Harrington QC, prosecuting, describe the deaths as a "massacre".

Details of Mrs Power's private life have also emerged - since her divorce, she had become something of a "sexual adventurer".

The trial at Swansea Crown Court is continuing - minus one of its panel of jurors who suffered a stroke at the weekend.