No new appeal for Clydach killer

David Morris was found guilty in a second trial last year

A former builder who murdered four members of the same family has lost his latest bid to mount an appeal.

But judges at the Court of Appeal have quashed David Morris's "whole-life" sentence saying he must serve at least 32 years before applying for parole.

He bludgeoned to death Mandy Power, 34, her mother Doris Dawson, 80, and her daughters Katie, 10, and Emily, eight, in Clydach near Swansea in 1999.

Morris, 44, of Craig-cefn-parc, Swansea Valley, beat all four with a pole.

They were found by firefighters at their home in June 1999.

Morris had set fire to the property after the killings.

He was convicted for a second time by a jury in August last year following a retrial at Newport Crown Court.

The trial judge, Mr Justice McKinnon, sentenced him to life for each of the four murders, telling Morris that "life imprisonment should mean imprisonment for the rest of your life".

The trial heard that the family were subjected to 'grotesque violence'

But three judges at the Court of Appeal in London quashed the whole-life term, making an order that he should serve a minimum period of 32 years before he can apply for release on parole.

They had earlier rejected an application by Morris for leave to appeal his convictions, ruling there was no "arguable" ground for a challenge.

Morris's original convictions from Swansea Crown Court in 2002 were quashed on appeal in 2005 when a second trial was ordered.

Sentencing powers

Sir Igor Judge, sitting with Mr Justice Elias and Mr Justice Griffith Williams, said Mr Justice McKinnon had concluded that it was a case for "what is described as a whole-life sentence".

But Sir Igor said that a court's sentencing powers for a retrial were "constrained by statute" in that a penalty imposed on a defendant following a retrial must not be harsher than that imposed on him after the first trial.

He said that at the conclusion of the first trial the judge, Mr Justice Butterfield, had recommended a minimum of 35 years.

The then Lord Chief Justice, Lord Woolf, had reviewed all the papers and concluded that the recommended period should be 32 years.