arrested and subsequently convicted of a firearms offence, and to divert suspicion from himself he ordered the "Butcher" slayings to continue. They did so, with Moore now acting as the de facto leader. Moore personally slit the throat of a young Catholic student from ear-to-ear and kicked another man to death. He also encouraged the others to torture the victims before killing them. The gang also killed several rival loyalist paramilitaries as a result of petty feuds, in addition to planting a bomb in a Catholic neighbourhood during a Provisional IRA parade. The bomb killed a 10-year-old boy, and wounded over 100 people. Conviction and imprisonment In 1977, after a victim, Gerard McLaverty escaped alive, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) drove him around the Shankill Road area and he was able to identify two of his captors: Sam McAllister and Benjamin Edwards. The Shankill Butchers gang, including Moore, was subsequently rounded up by RUC Detective Inspector Jimmy Nesbitt from "C" Division and his team of CID detectives who were investigating the murders from Tennent Street RUC station. McLaverty had also told police that the car into which he had been abducted was a yellow Ford Cortina, a vehicle they knew from their surveillance that Moore drove. Moore and the rest of the members broke down and confessed to the killings, although they were too terrified to name Lenny Murphy as the ringleader. However, during one police interview, Moore sought to put the blame solely on Murphy. "It was that bastard Murphy who led me into all this. My head's away with it". After a lengthy period spent in jail on remand, Moore and the others stood trial in February 1979 at the Belfast Crown Court. Moore pleaded guilty to the most murders – a total of eleven – and was convicted of these, plus a further eight murders. On 20 February he was sentenced to life imprisonment inside the Maze Prison with the trial judge, Lord Justice O'Donnell, recommending that he and co-accused Robert Bates never be released. Judge O'Donnell addressed Moore with the following statements, "You pleaded guilty to 11 murders carried out in a manner so cruel and revolting as to be beyond the comprehension of any normal human being. I am convinced that without you many of the murders would have not have been committed". When being led from the court, Moore waved and smiled at the