Man convicted of notorious murders dies in prison

A man convicted of murdering three generations of the same family more than 20 years ago has died in prison, it has been confirmed.

David Morris, 59, killed Mandy Power, 34, her bed-ridden mother Doris Dawson, 80, and her daughters Katie, 10, and Emily, eight, at their home in Clydach, near Swansea, in June 1999.

All four had been bludgeoned to death with a pole before their house was set on fire.

The former builder was jailed for a minimum of 32 years, having been convicted for a second time of their murders in 2006.

An earlier conviction was quashed by the Court of Appeal when a second trial was ordered.

A Prison Service spokeswoman confirmed Morris died at HMP Long Lartin in Worcestershire, where he was serving a life sentence.

“HMP Long Lartin prisoner David Morris died on August 20. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed,” she said.

Morris had long maintained his innocence and last year a programme by BBC Wales Investigates questioned the safety of the conviction.

It featured interviews with two potential witnesses – one who said he had never spoken to police and the other who said he contacted police to report what he had seen but nobody ever called him back.

South Wales Police said they had spoken to the two men and sought advice from the Crown Prosecution Service, who said no information had been provided that undermined Morris’s conviction.

Morris was arrested after the finger of suspicion wrongly pointed to Ms Power’s lover, Alison Lewis.

Former policewoman Ms Lewis and her former husband Stephen, an officer with South Wales Police, were arrested on suspicion of murder a year after the deaths.

Mr Lewis’s brother Stuart, also a police officer, was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice. They were all released without charge.

The Clydach inquiry was the largest and most complex murder investigation ever undertaken by a Welsh police force.