Not only did she lose the woman she idolised - worse still, she was publicly accused of battering to death the 34-year-old and her family.

David Morris's defence team did their utmost to make me look guilty, by implication and insinuation

Former suspect Alison Lewis

The 35-year-old mother-of-two was so distraught at Mrs Power's death that she tried to commit suicide by leaping out of a window.

Mrs Lewis had a message for her lover's family following the guilty verdict handed down to scrap metal dealer David Morris.

Speaking outside Swansea Crown Court following the verdict, she said: "I've felt the loss of Mandy, Doris, Katie and Emily more than anyone will ever know.

"However, I have never lost sight of the pain Mandy's family must have and still are suffering.

"I wish them the strength to move forward in an attempt to rebuild their lives as my family and myself now have to work at rebuilding ours."

Mrs Lewis also expressed her satisfaction with the verdict.

Stephen Lewis has since divorced Alison

She said: "Justice has finally been done. While standing trial for murder, the justice system afforded David Morris the luxury of being innocent until proven guilty.

"Throughout the trial, my rights as an innocent person were neither given, nor respected, as David Morris's defence team did their utmost to make me look guilty, by implication and insinuation."

Appearing as a witness at Swansea Crown Court, Mrs Lewis had wept as she denied it was she who had brutally wiped out the four with an iron bar.

The former police officer told the jury she had been wrongly branded a killer.

The Welsh women's rugby star and her then husband, police sergeant Steve Lewis, became prime murder suspects because of her lesbian relationship with Mrs Power.

"The police put me through hell for four days, but I didn't do it," said Mrs Lewis who was released without charge.

"I'd never hurt anyone. I loved Mandy and my only guilt is that I was not there to protect her on the one night she needed me. That night I was in bed with my husband in Pontardawe, that's my guilt."

Grief

David Morris, of Craig Cefn Parc, denied murdering divorcee Mrs Power, her daughters Katie, 10, and Emily, eight, and Mrs Power's 80-year-old mother Doris Dawson at their home in Kelvin Road, Clydach, on 27 June, 1999.

The focus of the investigation switched to Morris after a bloodstained gold chain at the murder scene was found to be his, but his defence lawyers tried their best to convince the jury that Mrs Lewis could have committed the murders.

Inspector Stuart Lewis was the first officer at the scene

In all, she was subjected to 23 police interviews by detectives.

"I was interrogated. I was tortured with my grief for four long days," she said.

"South Wales Police wrongly branded me a murderer, a murderer of the four people I loved.

Mrs Lewis's sexual preferences were highlighted during the trial.

Mrs Lewis - capped seven times as a rugby player and a former Welsh and British martial arts champion - told the jury she had been attracted to women from her early teens.

But she only realised she was gay after a sexual encounter with a woman on a rugby trip to Aberystwyth.

Emotive interview

Shortly afterwards she said she met Mrs Power at a tarot reading evening and they began a relationship.

There had been problems within their relationship but they had got it back on an even keel in the weeks leading up to the murders.

After being told of Mrs Power's death, Mrs Lewis tried to throw herself out of a window and was placed in a psychiatric hospital for 10 days for "acute grief reaction".

The house where the family died

In an emotive interview with BBC Wales's Gilbert John, Mrs Lewis described how the police arrived at her house one morning a year later and got her out of bed to arrest her.

"I heard running up the stairs, my bedroom door flew open, and there were police everywhere," she said.

"They came into the bedroom and told me I was under arrest for murder."

She was handcuffed and taken out onto the landing where, in view of her daughter, officers put plastic bags over her hands.

Mrs Lewis has since sought advice on taking legal action against South Wales Police for the mental anguish she claims to have suffered.

Mrs Lewis's now former husband Stephen and his twin brother Stuart remain suspended from duties.

A special programme on the Clydach murders is broadcast on BBC One Wales at 2055 BST on Friday.