Almost three years since the bodies of Mandy Power, her daughters and elderly mother were found bludgeoned to death in their home, the trial of the man accused of their murders has begun.

The evidence being given at Swansea Crown Court is the result of the biggest investigation ever undertaken by South Wales Police.

On Thursday details of the brutal murder of an entire family at their semi-detached home in Clydach in the Swansea Valley on 27 June 1999, began to emerge.

BBC Wales's Penny Roberts reports as the court hears that the bi-sexual lover of one of the victims tried to leap from a window on hearing news of the deaths.

"The court was told when the bodies of three generations of the same family were found in the burnt-out home in Clydach, there were chaotic scenes in the street outside.

"News of the horror spread quickly through the close community.

Mandy Power's friend Alison Lewis

"Alison Lewis went to Kelvin Road then returned to the home she shared with her police sergeant husband in Pontardawe.

"There the jury heard she was in deep shock and emotionally traumatised.

"She went upstairs and tried to jump out of the bedroom window.

"She was then admitted to a psychiatric hospital in Swansea."

"The jury was also shown pictures of the head injuries suffered by Mandy Power, her mother Doris Dawson and two young children Katie and Emily.

"Patrick Harrington QC told the jury 'Believe me, these are horrific - you will never have seen anything like it in all of your lives'.

"Much too has been heard of a gold neckchain which the prosecution alleges was left caked in blood at the murder scene.

"This morning the jury that a blob of paint found on the original exactly matched paint found on kitchen units at the defendant's home.

"David Morris, a 39-year-old builder's labourer denies four counts of murder.

The house in which the bodies were found was set on fire

"The jury was handed a plastic bag containing the chain.

"The judge said they wouldn't be able to take it out and look at it because it was contaminated by human blood."

"However, they could look at the police replica, and they examined it in great detail.

"Patrick Harrington said forensic scientists could not take DNA from the chain because it was caked in blood.

"But he did say that when it was examined by the chain's manufacturers, a blob of paint was found and it was indistinguishable from paint at David Morris's house - this he said was a crucially important discovery.

"He also told the jury that David Morris had lied and lied in the days and months following the killings about his movements on the night of the deaths and about the neckchain.

"These, he said, were carefully tailored lies and said that David Morris had refined and developed his account.

"The jury had also learned earlier in this case that four days before the start of the case, David Morris said the chain was probably his.

"On Monday we expect to hear the first evidence in the case and the first witnesses will take the stand.