The jury in the Clydach murder trial is inspecting the house in which four members of the same family were killed in June 1999.

The tour was swiftly organised on Tuesday after the group at Swansea Crown Court said they felt it would help them better understand what has been described to them by the prosecution as a "massacre".

David Morris, from Craig Cefn Parc in the Swansea Valley, denies killing Mandy Power, 34, along with her two daughters Katie, 10, and Emily, eight, as well as her invalid mother Doris Dawson, 80.

David Morris denies four counts of murder

The jury was to the family's Kelvin Road home after visiting the New Inn pub, where Mr Morris was drinking the night of the murders.

And they were set to walk the remote mountain footpath he claims to have used after leaving the inn.

Travelling by minibus, and accompanied by a police escort as well as the judge, they are seeing seven other key locations.

They include David Morris's home, where he lived with his girlfriend.

Since the killings, the house has been completely renovated - but the judge has told jury members they could take all the time they want to look around.

House killings

It is alleged that the 40-year-old scrap dealer carried out the killings after Mandy Powers spurned his sexual advances.

He then set fire to the house to conceal his crime, the prosecution claim.

The jury will visit the burned-out house in Kelvin Road

Opening the trial earlier this month, prosecuting counsel Patrick Harrington QC told the jury the family had been subjected to an "orgy of savagery".

He said they were beaten to death with an iron bar and that their deaths could only be described as a "massacre".

On Tuesday, Swansea Crown Court heard that the defendant had hit divorcee Mrs Powers on the head during an argument two years before the murders.

The jury heard that he hit her after she turned up drunk at his south Wales flat with his girlfriend Mandy Jewell.

The hearing has also been told that he told friends at a pub on the night before the murders that he did not like Mrs Power, describnig her as a "false person" and "extremely promiscuous".

The trial has also heard evidence from former police officer Alison Lewis who was involved in a lesbian relationship with Mrs Power.

The trial continues.