| Robert Bates | |
|---|---|
Robert "Basher" Bates |
|
| Born | Robert William Bates 12 December 1948 Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Died | 11 June 1997 (aged 48) Belfast, Northern Ireland |
| Cause of death | Fatal gunshot wound(s) |
| Nationality | British |
| Other names | "Basher" |
| Known for | Member of the Ulster Volunteer Force and Shankill Butchers |
Robert William Bates (nicknamed "Basher") (12 December 1948 – 11 June 1997) was an Ulster loyalist from Belfast, Northern Ireland. He was a member of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the infamous Shankill Butchers gang, led by Lenny Murphy.[1]
Bates was born into a Protestant family and grew up in the Shankill Road area of Belfast. He had a criminal record dating back to 1966,[2] and later became a member of the loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Bates, employed as a barman at the "Long Bar" pub, was recruited into the Shankill Butchers gang in 1975 by its notorious ringleader, Lenny Murphy. The gang used as its headquarters, the "Brown Bear" pub, a Shankill Road drinking haunt frequented by the UVF. Bates, a "sergeant" in the gang's heirarchy, was an avid participant in the brutal torture and savage killings perpetrated against innocent Catholics after they were abducted from nationalist streets and driven away in a black taxi owned by fellow Shankill Butcher, William Moore. The killings typically involved grisly-throat slashings preceded by lengthy beatings and torture.
Martin Dillon revealed that Bates was also one of the four UVF gunmen who carried out a mass shooting attack on the Chlorane Bar in Belfast city centre on 5 June 1976. Five people (three Catholics and two Protestants) were shot dead. The UVF unit had burst into the pub in Gresham Street and ordered the Catholics and Protestants to line up on opposite ends of the bar before they opened fire. He later recounted his role in the attack to police; however, he had claimed that he never fired any shots due to his revolver having malfunctioned. Forensics evidence contradicted him as it proved that his revolver had been fired inside the Chlorane Bar that night.[3] Lenny Murphy was in police custody at the time the shooting attack against the Chlorane Bar took place.
Bates was arrested in 1977, along with Moore and other "Shankill Butcher" accomplices.[4] Following a long period spent on remand, he was convicted in February 1979 of murder related to the Shankill Butcher killings and given ten life sentences, with a recommendation by the trial judge, Mr Justice O'Donnell, that he should never be released.[4] While in the Maze Prison, he was said to have "found God", and as a result became a born-again Christian.[5]
In October 1996, 18 months prior to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, Bates was cleared for early release by the Life Sentence Review Board. He was given the opportunity of participating in a rehabilitation scheme, spending the day on a work placement and returning to prison at night.[6] As he arrived for work at in his native Shankill area of Belfast early on the morning of 11 June 1997,[7] Bates was shot dead by the son of a UDA man he had killed in 1977.[8] He was a buried in a Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster ceremony by Rev Alan Smylie.[9]
Bates' name was subsequently included on the banner of a prominent Orange Lodge on the Shankill Road, called Old Boyne Island Heroes.[10] A fellow Lodge member and former friend of Bates defended the inclusion of his name to journalist Peter Taylor: "I knew him very well and he'd been a personal friend for twenty or thirty years and to me he was a gentleman".[11] He went on to describe him as having been "an easy-going, decent fellow, and as far as the Lodge is concerned, a man of good-standing".[12] Bates' funeral was attended by a large representation from local Orange Lodges.[13]