Robert Bates was a Belfast loyalist who, on February 20, 1979, was sentenced to life imprisonment after pleading guilty to ten counts of murder. He was one of eleven members of a gang linked to the Ulster Volunteer Force and led by Lenny Murphy who were sentenced that day for a total of 19 murders. The trial judge, Lord Justice O'Donnell, called the gang's crimes "a catalogue of horror" and "a lasting monument to blind sectarian bigotry".
Bates began a work-out scheme in October 1996, a step towards release on licence. He was killed in Belfast on June 11, 1997, aged 48.
The gang was made up of loyalists connected to the Ulster Volunteer Force. Its leader, Lenny Murphy, was in prison on a separate offense by the time of the trial and was not among the eleven men sentenced in February 1979. Bates and William Moore were the two men most often named as Murphy's closest associates. Bates was born in 1948 or 1949.
One of the gang's victims was Con Neeson, who died in Belfast in August 1976. Bates and Moore are the two members of the gang linked to his death.
The eleven men were sentenced on Tuesday February 20, 1979. Bates pleaded guilty to ten counts of murder and Moore to eleven. Lord Justice O'Donnell sentenced both men to life imprisonment and recommended that they never be released.
By October 1996 Bates had begun a work-out scheme, and by June 1997 he was close to release on licence. On June 11, 1997 he was killed in Belfast. No one claimed responsibility. Moore was released in 1998 under the Good Friday Agreement and died in 2009.
A life sentence in Northern Ireland did not carry a fixed term. A prisoner given a provisional release date had to complete a pre-release programme, normally about nine months, after which the Secretary of State decided on release on a life licence, and release followed within fifteen days of the licence being signed. In answer to a parliamentary question in December 1996, the Northern Ireland minister, Sir John Wheeler, said that 12 loyalist and four republican life-sentence prisoners had provisional release dates. The labels loyalist and republican were recorded for management purposes and reflected perceived affiliations.
The court in 1979 recommended that Bates never be released; by 1996 he was on a pre-release programme. Responsibility for his death in 1997 was not claimed.
August 1976: Con Neeson dies in Belfast.
February 1979: Bates pleads guilty to ten counts of murder; Moore pleads guilty to involvement in eleven.
February 20, 1979: eleven men sentenced for 19 murders; Bates receives life imprisonment.
October 1996: Bates begins a work-out scheme.
June 11, 1997: Bates is killed in Belfast, aged 48.
1998: Moore is released under the Good Friday Agreement.