THE children of a Witney couple killed on holiday in Wales came face-to-face with their parents’ alleged murderer in court.

Peter, 51, and Gwenda Dixon, 52, were on holiday in Pembrokeshire when they were found shot dead on a remote cliff top footpath in 1989.

Their daughter Julie Pratley told Swansea Crown Court she would have been with them had she not holidayed abroad for the first time in her life that year.

Mrs Pratley told the jury how she spent every summer with her parents in Pembrokeshire.

But in June 1989 she was growing up and took a trip abroad with a friend.

She was in Cyprus when her parents were forced off the Pembrokeshire Coastal Footpath, tied up, robbed and shot dead, the court heard.

The prosecution allege the killer was Welsh farm labourer John William Cooper, now 66.

Cooper denies murdering the Dixons, who lived in Moorland Road, Witney, and also the murder of brother and sister Richard and Helen Thomas, who were also tied up and shot dead, in 1985.

The jury heard scientists found Julie’s DNA on a pair of green shorts, recovered by detectives from the bedroom of Cooper’s then home in St Mary’s Park, Jordanston, Haverfordwest.

The prosecution claim they had been her mother’s and that Cooper had taken them from the scene of the murders, had them altered and worn them as if they were his.

Mrs Pratley said she did not recognise the shorts.

The jury also heard from the Dixons’ son Timothy. He said he paid his parents a visit while they were in Pembrokeshire and returned to Oxfordshire just days before they were killed.

As the prosecution continued to make their case, an expert said that handwriting on the side of a shotgun cartridge box found at Cooper’s home could have been that of murder victim Helen Thomas.

Forensic scientist Dr Hilary Brenda Pritchard said there was moderate scientific support for the conclusion.

The prosecution allege that Cooper stole the box after breaking into Scoveston Manor in 1985.

Before he left, said prosecuting counsel Gerard Elias, he shot dead millionaire farmer Richard Thomas, 58, and his sister Helen, aged 56.

Cooper denies all the murder charges, and charges of rape, indecent assault and attempted robbery involving other alleged victims.

The trial continues.

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