Man jailed for Shankill Butcher attack on local man wants 'a proper UVF send-off'

A FORMER member of the notorious Shankill Butcher gang who was jailed for his role in a murderous attack on a local man wants a ‘proper UVF send-off’ when he dies, it has been claimed.

Eddie McIlwaine was part of a four-man gang that abducted Catholic Gerard McLaverty in May 1977, and was convicted of kidnapping, assault and possession of weapons with intent to endanger life.

Mr McLaverty was raised in Crumlin but spent much of his adult life in Antrim, working for the council for a time and later as a taxi driver.

He was bundled into a car at gun point by members of the Butchers gang, led by 16 stone ‘Big Sam’ McAllister, on May 11 1977.

“We all got out of the car,” the local man later recalled. “The two men in front of the car took one of my arms each and marched me into the building. The fat man came behind.”

Within the building was a room, with only a dining room chair, two electric heaters, and a counter. McLaverty was ordered to sit on the chair, and told he would be staying there until morning.

“The fat man and the car driver went behind the counter and came back with sticks. The fat man had a nail driven through the end of it. They both started beating me around the head with the sticks.”

Unbelievably, the brutal beating only ceased when the gang decided it was time for an impromptu tea break.

“They had a teapot and a kettle and the driver of the car went and made some tea. The fat man asked me if I wanted tea and I refused. I said: ‘I want to go home’. The fat man said: ‘You are not going home. There is no way you are getting out of this’.

The killers drank their tea and surveyed their captive in silence, before continuing their onslaught.

They began beating McLaverty with their bare hands and feet before an attempt was made to strangle the man to death with a shoelace.

“At that time the fat man had a large clasp knife. The driver tightened the lace around my neck and the fat man began slashing at my clothes with the knife. With the tightening of the lace around my neck I lost consciousness.”

When McLaverty regained his senses, he was surrounded by a crowd of people and whisked away by an ambulance to the Royal Victoria Hospital.

In a final act of callousness, both of his wrists had been slashed and he had been left to die. Doctors believe that it had been due to the unseasonably cold night that May that the local hadn’t succumbed to blood loss.

When he had recovered sufficiently, the local man was placed in the rear of a police vehicle and driven around the Shankill in search of his attackers. One by one, he spotted his attackers - finally ending the gang’s reign of terror.

Between May 1977 and February 1979, 11 members of the gang appeared in court and on the final day of hearings it took Judge Justice O’Donnell 20 minutes to deliver the sentences, which totalled 2,000 years of imprisonment - the most handed down in a single sitting in British legal history.

Amongst those sentenced was Arthur McClay, an Antrim man who was sentenced to life with a recommendation he serve no less than 20 years for his role in the killings.

Justice O’Donnell praised Gerard McLaverty’s courage, adding that he had potentially saved the lives of others.

He died in March 2008 after a suspected fall, and a funeral service was held at St James’ Church in Aldergrove.

Speaking at the time, former SDLP MLA and councillor Thomas Burns said he first met him at primary school.

“He was a quiet big fella,” Mr Burns reflected, adding that he had held ‘no bitterness whatsoever’ for those who had scarred him.

Ex-detective chief inspector Jimmy Nesbitt, who led the arrest operation, called him ‘an incredibly brave man’.

“Gerry was a harmless soul, a terrific lad, a victim of the circumstances of the time,” he said.

Eddie McIlwaine was sentenced to 10 years for his role - and this week the Sunday World has reported that he wants his contribution marked when he dies.

“In his mind, if he gets a proper UVF send-off it will justify everything he was involved in as a member of the Butchers Gang,” said an un-named source.

“He’s a staunch member of the Orange Order, but he also wants to be recognised as a former loyalist paramilitary. It’s in the culture and tradition of the area.”

Mr McIlwaine has been pictured a number of times taking part in Orange parades - and the Order has defended his inclusion saying he ‘is a member of a lodge and in good standing’.

“Mr McIlwaine was not convicted of murder. He served his prison term and was not released under the [Good Friday] Agreement,” said a spokesperson in 2023.

“There are people of varying political persuasions who have done things other people would find abhorrent, not all of whom served their prison sentences.”

As long as Mr McIlwaine ‘upholds the principle of the institution’ the spokesperson added that he had ‘paid his debt to society’.