‘I became the Devil’: Shock of the woman wrongfully suspected of killing an entire family in Clidach | UK news

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When an angry mob gathered outside a police station, Allison Lewis thought she was going to be killed.

The former Welsh international rugby player, and former policewoman, has been arrested for the brutal murder of three generations of the same family – and a mob of “screaming and screaming” has been waiting for her.

After four days of intense questioning on the suspicion of the quad murder in Clydach, South Wales, Alison was released on bail and hid in the back of the car as it left the station.

Photo: Allison Lewis pictured in 2002

“I’ve become the devil,” she says in a new documentary.

“That’s all they wanted was my blood.

“I remember lying on the floor of the car thinking: ‘I’m going to die right here in the back of this car and I won’t be able to prove I’m innocent.'”

“I really thought I was going to get killed.”

A year before her arrest, Allison’s lover Mandy Bauer was found dead along with Mandy’s mother Doris and their daughters, Katie, 10, and Emily, 8.

Photo: Mandy Bauer and her daughters Katie and Emily were killed

Prosecutors said the family was beaten to death with a pole in an “orgy of brutality” before their home was set on fire in June 1999.

Now, a new four-part series takes a forensic look at the largest murder investigation in Wales history – with Allison agreeing to a TV interview about the case for the first time in more than a decade.

Photo: Doris Dawson, the mother of Mandy Bauer, was murdered

Director Owen Phillips, who went to school near Clydash at the time of the murders, said that the early media focus on Alison was in part because of her “unconventional” relationship with Mandy and her martial arts training, which included a black belt in karate.

He told Sky News: “The headlines were obsessed with Alison because she was a black belt, she was from the Welsh international rugby team, she was a police officer – all of these things were baffling to reporters.

“I feel for Alison. She said she loves Mandy. They were getting ready to live together.

“She was shocked by the murder and then became a suspect.”

Photo: Alison Lewis gave evidence during a murder trial

At the time of her affair with Mandy, Alison was married to Stephen Lewis, a South Wales Police officer, who was also arrested on suspicion of murder.

His twin brother Stewart, who was also a police officer, was arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.

They were all released without charge.

Former builder David “Day” Morris – who claimed he had an affair with Mandy – was eventually convicted of the murders and spent 22 years in prison before his death in August last year.

Photo: David Morris sentenced to life in prison for the Clydash murders

A blood-stained gold chain was found at the crime scene that led police to Morris, with the paint on the jewelry matching the paint used on his apartment’s kitchen cabinets.

Morris always protested his innocence and his family vowed to clear his name.

“They totally believe he didn’t and would say it’s not a matter of blind faith,” Phillips says of the Morris family.

“They can’t let it go – if they did, they would have felt it was a betrayal.

“The police and Mandy Bauer’s family believe 100% of David Morris is guilty and want that gone.

“It rips society apart. People are so entrenched in their views of who did it.”

Photo: Maurice’s sister Debra Thomas has always protested her brother’s innocence

The Clydach homicide investigation was the largest and most complex homicide investigation ever undertaken by the Welsh Police Force.

Morris was convicted of the murders in 2002 – but the ruling was overturned on appeal due to a conflict of interest by defense attorneys.

However he was convicted again during a retrial in 2006 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

A 2020 BBC documentary questioned the validity of the conviction after it included interviews with two potential witnesses.

Photo: Morris passed away in August 2021

But after the documentary aired, South Wales Police said no information was presented that would undermine Morris’ conviction.

After a forensic review of case materials, the force revealed in October that a bloodstained sock had been found at a crime scene linking Morris to the murders.

The sock, widely believed to have been used by Morris during the killings, identified the presence of DNA linking him or a paternal relative to the crime scene.

This development sparked a rare statement from the Mandy family calling on Morris’ supporters to accept his guilt.

They said, “The loss and grief our family has experienced and continues to go through is heartbreaking and affects many aspects of life.

“No family should have to go through what we have and we still do.”

Photo: A gold chain that led the police to Morris

Phillips, who previously worked on the two documentaries Barrymore: Body In The Pool and Leaving Neverland, hopes his new series will finally address “what really happened that night in the summer of 1999 in Clydach.”

“That kind of thing doesn’t really happen in this kind of society – tight-knit industrial societies,” he says.

“Everyone knows everyone, it’s gossip – so when it happened it was like an atomic bomb for the whole community and all the surrounding towns and villages because of its brutality and weirdness.

“For 12 months, there were no arrests. You can imagine the fear and paranoia that was going on as people worried about who could have committed these murders.

“In addition to being an interesting case with unusual details, I think there is a legitimate reason to open this up and look at it again.

“One of the hard things is separating fact from fiction, gossip from truth.”

Murder In The Valleys airs on Sky Crime and NOW on Sunday, February 6th.

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