A MAN accused of murdering his baby daughter, her mother and grandmother by setting fire to their Cwmbran home was 'obsessively jealous' and sent text messages threatening to kill, a court heard.

Carl Mills, 28, of no fixed abode, has denied killing his partner Kayleigh Buckley, 17, her mother Kim Buckley, 46, and Kayleigh's six-month-old baby Kimberley, by setting fire to their house at Tillsland, Coed Eva, in the early hours of September 18 last year.

At Mills' trial, which began at Newport Crown Court today, prosecutor Gregory Bull QC said Mills met Kayleigh on the internet when she was 15 years old and the defendant was 27.

"He came from Manchester but such was his attraction to Kayleigh that he was prepared to come regularly to Cwmbran and stay with her," said Mr Harrington in his opening statement.

"He deliberately set out to groom her sexually and a relationship developed.

"Kayleigh became totally infatuated with the defendant, he seemed to exercise a magnetic control over her and her behaviour changed," he said.

The court heard how Kayleigh began truanting from school and ran away from home to sleep rough with Mills on the streets of Cwmbran and Newport.

Kayleigh's mother Kim was not only disapproving of the relationship but "distraught", the court heard.

"She saw Mills as a controlling and violent man who was alcohol dependent, with no home, was frequently drunk and when drunk he was trouble," said Mr Bull.

"Kim did what she could to break up her daughter from Mills. She contacted the police and the school but neither force was able to control that younger daughter," he said.

Kim was frightened of the defendant who she thought was unpredictable and threatening, the court heard.

The trial continues at 10am tomorrow at Newport Crown Court. Mills denies the three charges against him.