A man accused of killing three generations of the same family has told the jury he hit one of the victims on the head during an argument two years before the murders.

Swansea Crown Court heard how David Morris, 39, struck mother-of-two Mandy Power when she turned up drunk at his south Wales flat with his girlfriend Mandy Jewell.

I told everybody that I did not like her, as I have said, she was a false person

Defendant David Morris

He has also said he told friends at a pub on the night before the murders that he did not like Mrs Power, and described her as a "false person".

Mr Morris, from Craig Cefn Parc in the Swansea Valley, denies the murders of Mrs Power, 34, her 80-year-old mother Doris Dawson, and her two daughters Katie and Emily, aged 10 and eight in June 1999.

The scrap dealer - whose girlfriend Mandy Jewell was a close friend of victim Mrs Power - told police he regarded divorcee Mrs Power as "extremely promiscuous".

The court heard that Mr Morris was interviewed by police as a potential witness days after the murders.

The court heard that he gave three separate witness statements at his home over a three-month period, in which he described Mrs Power as a "bubbly, happy character".

David Morris denies four counts of murder

But he said they had argued when his partner and Mrs Power turned up drunk after a night out.

"My Mandy and her came here in the early hours of the morning," he told police.

A heated row then broke out, and Mrs Power "joined in".

"I pushed Power with the flat side of my hand on the side of her head," he said.

"Apart from the above I have never struck or been violent to Power."

Mr Morris also said he had been in the New Inn pub in Clydach on the evening before the murders, and had been critical of Mrs Power during a conversation.

He said his partner had previously been upset when she discovered that Mrs Power's claims to have cancer turned out to be a hoax.

Lesbian lover Alison Lewis

"I told everybody that I did not like her, as I have said, she was a false person," Mr Morris said in his police statement.

The trial was adjourned until Tuesday when the jury will visit the murder scene and other important locations.

The scene was described in court as being a "massacre" and fire officers have spoken of their distress at what they discovered at the scene.

Earlier in the trial, ex-police officer Alison Lewis, the former lesbian lover of Mrs Power, told of her love for the murder victims.

Mrs Lewis, who had been a suspect for a time, has described how she began an intimate and passionate relationship with Mrs Powers.

It is alleged that father-of-two Mr Morris allegedly carried out the killings after Mandy Powers spurned his sexual advances.

The trial continues.