'Massacre' trial told of wine seduction

BP worker Robert Wachovski told Swansea Crown Court how he had an affair with murder victim Mandy Power in the year before she died.

Former scrap metal dealer David Morris, 39, from Craig Cefn Parc in the Swansea Valley denies the murders of Mrs Power, who was 34, her 80-year-old mother Doris Dawson, and her two daughters Katie and Emily, aged 10 and eight.

The family was found bludgeoned to death and their house in the nearby village of Clydach was later set alight on 27 June 1999.

On Tuesday Mr Wachovski - who had been first on the murder scene and tried in vain to rescue the victims - told the court he got to know the divorcee after she moved in opposite him in Kelvin Road.

He began an affair with Mrs Power in the year before the murders after she left the wine outside his door with her number and a note asking if he wanted to go for a drink.

The court was also told how Mrs Power later had a lesbian relationship with former police officer and Wales women's rugby international Alison Lewis.

Mr Wachovski told the jury Mrs Power was "100% committed to Alison Lewis".

She had decided she was a lesbian and that was it, he said.

On the day of the murders nearly three years ago, Mr Wachovski arrived at the scene and ran to the back of the house where the kitchen was ablaze.

He said he then ran around to the front where other neighbours had arrived.

The jury heard that they managed to kick in the front door but were forced back by plumes of thick, black smoke.

Mandy Power's former husband Michael Power also gave evidence to the trial on Tuesday.

He said after their divorce he continued to see the girls frequently.

He knew about his ex-wife's lesbian relationship, but he said it did not bother him as long as it did not upset his daughters.

He last saw them the day before the murders when he dropped them home after they had spent the night with him.

Earlier a 13-year-old girl - who cannot be identified - told the jury via a video link that she may have seen the massacre weapon.

The girl said she recalled being in a bedroom in the murdered family's home about two months before the killings and said she saw a four foot, black metal pole inside the wardrobe.

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

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.

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