A former police woman who was once the prime suspect for the deaths of an entire family has told a murder trial jury of the lesbian love affair she conducted with the mother-of-two who was killed.

Alison Lewis, 35, from Pontypridd, south Wales, told the jury at Swansea Crown Court on Tuesday that she had first met Mandy Power at a tarot reading at her home in Clydach in November 1998.

Alison Lewis arrives at Swansea Crown Court

Within two weeks, the jury was told, they had started an intimate relationship.

David Morris, 39, a scrap metal dealer from Craig Cefn Parc in the Swansea Valley, denies murdering Mrs Power, 34, her two 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 Mrs 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 took to the stand for three hours to tell the court that although she had liked Mrs Power, she at first thought she was heterosexual.

It was only when she overhead Mrs Power talk to someone else at the tarot card reading about how she liked Mrs Lewis, that the attraction between them began.

She said: "She told me that she had never slept with a woman before.

"But when the gay relationship developed she said that she had kissed a woman before.

"She was very open about the relationship with her friends but I did everything I could to cover up the relationship."

Mandy Power's former lover Alison Lewis

Describing their love, Mrs Lewis said: "We were very close. I would see her almost every day and when I did not, I would speak to her.

"I know I was married, but we were happy.

"She said she would always be in my life and I would always be in hers."

Later, Mrs Lewis broke down as she described how she first heard about the deaths of Mrs Power and her family.

She was woken by a phone call at around 6am on Sunday 27 June, from Mrs Power's neighbour, Christine Pugh, to tell her about what had happened at Kelvin Road.

Weeping, she described how she went to the road and saw Mrs Power's house burnt out.

The family's burned-out house in Kelvin Road

She said: "There were firemen and police officers everywhere. I went into a neighbours house and she told me: 'They've all gone'."

She broke down in tears so heavily that Judge Mr Justice Butterfield adjourned the hearing to allow Mrs Lewis to compose herself.

Earlier on Tuesday two witnesses told the murder trial they saw 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 trial, which is in 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.