Free Dai Morris Campaign

One of the most brutal crimes to ever occur in South Wales happened on our doorstep in Clydach. Mandy Power, her 80-year-old mother Doris Dawson, and her two young daughters Katie and Emily, 10 and 8 respectively, were brutally murdered in their home in Clydach on June 27^th in 1999. Three police officers were eventually arrested. However, they were later released without charge. The police were perplexed as to who the killer could be.

Twenty years later, there is a man sitting in a prison cell charged with four life sentences who many believe to be innocent. That man is David Morris. There is currently a “free Dai Morris” campaign being fought, led by Dai’s sister Deborah and his two daughters Janine and Laura, who say that he was found guilty of these murders with a lack of evidence, and maintain his innocence.

During the court case, it was argued that the killer let himself into the house and brutally beat Doris Dawson to death with a fibreglass pole. The killer then waited for Mandy to get home with her daughters and murdered all three of them. The killer then attempted to destroy the evidence by starting multiple fires within the home. By killing the mother first and waiting for the rest of the family to arrive, murders seemed premeditated.

The only evidence directly linking Dai Morris to the crime scene was a gold necklace found at the house. He initially lied to the police, claiming that it wasn’t his, but later admitted that it was. The prosecution argued in court that the necklace was ripped from Morris while he was attacking Mandy. Morris had been drinking and taking drugs on the night of the murder at a pub, a short walk from Mandy’s home.

As there was no DNA linking Morris to the murder scene, there remain questions as to whether he could have scrubbed his DNA completely from the crime scene. Could Morris, high on drink and drugs, be capable of cleaning up at the scene of the crime if he was in a drunken rage as the prosecution alleged in court?

The explanation that Morris gave for his chain being at Mandy’s home was that he was having an affair with her. He claimed to have been at Mandy’s home the day before the murder, however, the prosecution argued that his phone records disproved this. Morris gave an alibi that he walked home from the pub with his partner and stayed home for the rest of the night, which was also a lie. There is no doubt that David Morris lied throughout the murder investigation. He also had a history of violence that made him a scapegoat.

It was reported that Mandy was having an affair with a married woman named Alison Lewis. Alison was a serving police officer at the time of the murder, and was married to another police officer, Stephen Lewis. Witnesses and friends of Mandy saw Stephen threaten her to stay away from his wife, or he will kill her. Both officers were at the scene the morning of the murders in an official capacity. Stephen later claimed that he had no knowledge of his wife’s affair with Mandy. He therefore had no motive to kill Mandy and her family. However, the fact that he threatened to kill her contradicts this. He later claimed that the threat was made in jest. Witnesses also claim that Alison made no attempt to keep her affair secret from people who live in Clydach.

Stephen had an alibi the night of the killing, claiming he went to bed at 10pm, and his wife backed him up. He claimed he went to work at 5am. When Stephen phoned Alison to tell her about the murder in the morning, she told him she was already at the home of the victims.

The police suspected Alison Lewis of the murder. She suffered from rage and jealousy, disliking the fact that Mandy was in sexual relationships with other men. She later admitted that she was planning on leaving her husband to be with Mandy, providing another motive for him to murder her. Shortly after the deaths of Mandy and her family, Alison attempted suicide. Her husband took her to a psychiatric hospital where she stayed for two weeks.

Witnesses have said they saw Alison at Mandy’s home much earlier than she claimed on the morning of the murders. Furthermore, a witness saw a man near Mandy’s home at 2:20am on the morning of the murders. This would have been roughly two hours after the killing. She didn’t recognise the man but said that he had a bag with him and was wearing a puffer jacket, which she said resembled a police jacket. Upon hearing of the murders, the woman went into the police station the following day and an E-fit was made of the man. The man in the picture became the prime suspect of the investigation. During a police line-up, the witness chose Stephen Lewis, the man who had motive and had made threats to kill Mandy.

Because Stephen had an alibi, the police believed it wasn’t him.  Stephen had a twin brother, Stuart, an inspector on duty in the police on the night of the murder. His whereabouts on the night of the murder at the time of the killings cannot be accounted for. He was investigated, and a taxi driver in Clydach made a statement to the police staying he saw a red Peugeot in Clydach on the night of the murder, the same car that Stuart drove. He was also the senior officer in charge of the murder scene on the morning of the murder. The three police officers, Allison, Stephen, and Stuart, were arrested a year after the murder. However, the police said there wasn’t enough evidence to charge them.

The police claimed that Dai Morris had gone to Mandy’s home in a drunken rage and killed the whole family. The forensics suggested that the grandmother was killed first, then the killer waited for Mandy and her daughters to return home, and subsequently killed them. This does not fit with the prosecution’s argument of Morris being in a drunken rage.

DNA from Alison Lewis was present on the body of Mandy when she was killed. However, that was explained by them having a relationship. The police did not release the E-fit of Stephen to the public until a year after the death of Mandy and her family. Was there a cover up to protect three police officers that could have taken part in the murder? Police officers believed that Stephen’s brother Stuart, who was the lead officer at the crime scene, was acting odd the day after the killing. There was an accusation from some within the police force that he may have been acting to protect his brother.

David Morris is in jail because he lied continually throughout the investigation, and because of his lack of alibi. The only evidence linking him to the scene was a gold chain. Morris had a motive to kill Mandy because witnesses say he was angry in the pub on the night of the murders, and that he didn’t his partner and Mandy being friends. This appears to be a weak motive to kill an entire family. But there was stronger evidence to suggest that a police officer was involved in the brutal Clydach murders.

The Free Dai Morris Campaign is being fought by Llanelli resident Karen Lewis who feels strongly that what happened to Dai Morris was a grave injustice. She is a local campaigner who has fought for issues such as Stop Forced Adoption in the past. She is urging people in Llanelli to join their cause by joining the Facebook group, which has 18,000 members. The next meeting is taking place on the 20^th March at 11:00am at Maggie Dicks in Swansea to help raise awareness for the miscarriage of justice that happened to Dai Morris.