Girl may have seen 'massacre' weapon

Three generations of the family died in the attack

A 13-year-old girl has told a jury in Swansea that she may have seen the weapon used to murder two of her friends, their mother and grandmother.

Doris Dawson, 80, her daughter Mandy Power, 34, and her granddaughters Katie, 10, and Emily, eight, were found dead in the Kelvin Road home early on 27 June 1999.

David Morris denies four counts of murder

Former scrap metal dealer David Morris, 39, from Craig Cefn Parc in the Swansea Valley, denies murdering the four victims with a metal pole at their home in nearby Clydach.

The girl, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, gave her evidence via a video link to the main courtroom.

A videotape was played of an interview with police recorded last summer, lasting about an hour and a quarter.

The teenager said she used to play with Katie and Emily when she was a neighbour of the family in Kelvin Road.

She recalled being in a bedroom about two months before the murders.

The girl said her friends took her into the bedroom to see a poster they had put up inside a wardrobe.

She said she saw a four foot, black metal pole inside the wardrobe.

Katie Power was one of the child victims

When shown a picture of the alleged murder weapon, the teenager said it looked similar to the pole she had seen.

However, when shown the gold chain said to have belonged to the defendant, she said she had never seen it before.

The jury in the trial - now in its second week - has already heard the prosecution outline their case against Mr Morris, describing the killings as a "massacre."

Patrick Harrington QC said the skulls of all four victims were beaten in with a metal pole and fires later set around the house in an effort to disguise the "orgy of savagery".

Mr Harrington told the court Mr Morris allegedly carried out the killings after his sexual advances towards Mrs Power were spurned.

The jury was told how Mrs Power's invalid elderly mother was killed in her bed, while one small daughter's body was found on the landing and the other girl was found "cowering" in her bedroom.

Details of the complicated private life of divorcee Mrs Power have also been revealed to the jury.

The prosecution described how she had become a "sexual adventurer", involving herself in both lesbian and heterosexual relationships after her marriage broke down.

The burned-out house in Kelvin Road

One of those relationships, the court has heard, was with a former police officer Alison Lewis, who had herself tried to commit suicide on hearing of the murders.

Mrs Power's younger sister Julie Evans described how Mrs Power was prone to mood swings and could have a "possessive and jealous" nature.

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