Jim Spence (born ) is a Northern Irish former loyalist activist. Spence became notorious for his time in the Ulster Defence Association (UDA), serving two spells in charge of the West Belfast Brigade. Spence is a native of the Woodvale area of Belfast's Shankill Road. B Company and collusion Gerard Slane Spence was commander of 'B' Company of the UDA's West Belfast Brigade, which covered the Woodvale area at the top of the Shankill Road, during the 1980s and 1990s. In this role Spence was closely involved with British agent Brian Nelson. On 22 September 1988, Gerard Slane was shot dead at his Falls Road home after members of the UDA broke down his front door and shot him four times in the head. An article that appeared in the UDA's Ulster magazine claimed that Slane was a member of the Irish People's Liberation Organisation (IPLO) and had driven the getaway car when UDA member Billy Quee was killed by that group, although the IPLO did not claim Slane as a member following his killing. In 1992, Nelson issued a statement in which he placed the blame on Spence for the killing. According to Nelson, he had obtained a photograph of Slane and had shown it to eyewitnesses who identified Slane as the driver at Quee's killing. Nelson claimed that he then gave the picture to Spence, who told Nelson "I'll soon deal with him" and dispatched a murder squad, after first sending a reconnaissance team to find Slane's house. Johnny Adair would later frequently recount the details of how he had been one of the two gunmen to kill Slane, although in truth this had not been the case. The actual killers have not been identified but they were picked by Spence from within the ranks of B Company whilst Adair had always been a member of the Lower Shankill's C Company. The Attorney General for Northern Ireland ordered that the murder case be reopened in June 2011 to investigate the collusion allegations. Brigadier In 1990, Spence was one of a number of leading figures within the West Belfast UDA imprisoned as part of the Stevens Inquiries. Tommy Lyttle, the West Belfast brigadier was the first to be jailed and he was soon followed by Matt Kincaid, Spence and William "Winkie" Dodds, the commanders respectively of A, B and C companies, the brigade's three sub-units. Soon after his arrest