FORMER policewoman Alison Lewis wept this week (Tues) as she told a murder jury of her love for tragic mother Mandy Power.

The women were in a lesbian affair when Mrs Power, her disabled mother and two daughters were allegedly "massacred" by builder David Morris, aged 39, of Craigcefnparc.

Mrs Lewis, aged 35, told how she represented Wales and Great Britain at karate before turning to the "lesbian" world of women's rugby.

She began playing on the wing for Ystradgynlais and was soon selected for the full Welsh side and the first of her seven caps at international level.

Mrs Lewis told Swansea Crown Court the majority of the Ystradgynlais players were lesbians.

"I became aware of it almost immediately. It was not a secret," she said. "I had had crushes on women. I never chose to be gay.

"It was something that was there."

Her first lesbian experience was with Tracey Hillyer during a rugby sevens tour to Aberystwyth in 1996.

But she said she tried to hide it from her husband, police sergeant Stephen Lewis.

She met Mandy Power in November 1998 when a gay rugby player from Swansea invited her to a reading of tarot cards.

"I thought she was attractive, funny, very bubbly. She was a very kind person.

"I thought she was straight," Mrs Lewis told the jury.

After two weeks their friendship developed into a sexual affair.

"If we met 10 times we made love nine times," added Mrs Lewis, a mother of twin six year old daughters, was married at the time to Sergeant Lewis.

Mrs Lewis - who was pensioned out of South Wales Police with stress after just six years - told how she struggled to keep the truth from her husband.

The court has heard how she was forced to confess to her husband on June 27, 1999, after Mandy, aged 34, her mother Doris Dawson, 80, and her daughters Katie, aged 10, and Emily, eight, were beaten to death at their home in Kelvin Road, Clydach.

The prosecution claim the "slaughter" happened after a drunken Morris called at Kelvin Road late at night hoping to have sex with Mrs Power.

But by the, said Patrick Harrington QC, prosecuting, she was in a settled relationship with Mrs Lewis and she rejected his advances.

Morris denies four charges of murder.

The defence has already said it will accuse Alison Lewis of murdering the family aided by her husband.

The pair were arrested at one stage during the police inquiry but released without being charged.

The trial continues, but with only 11 jurors after a man suffered a stroke at the weekend.

He is recovering in hospital.