Editing Billy Wright (loyalist) (section)

===Imprisonment===
[[File:Maze Prison - geograph - 341034.jpg|thumb|left|[[Maze Prison]], outside Lisburn, where Wright was sent in April 1997, and shot dead the following December]]

Despite a series of sectarian murders and attacks on Catholic property by the LVF from 1996 to early 1997 (although they were not claimed by the organisation), Wright was not arrested until January 1997. He was charged with committing an act with intent to pervert the course of justice, and making death threats against a woman, Gwen Read. This threat followed an altercation with Read's family and LVF members. On 7 March he was sentenced to eight years imprisonment for both offences and initially imprisoned at [[Maghaberry (HM Prison)|HMP Maghaberry]].<ref name="arrest-imprisonment">{{cite web |title=The Billy Wright Inquiry - Report |url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/collusion/docs/wright_140910.pdf |website=[[Conflict Archive on the Internet]] |publisher=[[The Stationery Office]] |page=57 |date=2010}}</ref> On 18 March, he was visited by DUP politician [[Peter Robinson (Northern Ireland politician)|Peter Robinson]] (who later became [[First Minister of Northern Ireland]] in 2008). During the meeting, Wright told Robinson he believed an attempt on his life by republicans was imminent.<ref name="arrest-imprisonment"/>

He was sent to the Maze in April 1997. He demanded and was granted an LVF section in C and D wings of H-block 6 (H6) for himself and 26 fellow inmates. INLA prisoners were housed in the A and B wings, and the [[Irish Republican Socialist Party]] (IRSP, the political wing of the INLA) warned there would be trouble if the prisoners were not kept segregated. In August 1997, LVF prisoners, led by Wright, rioted over their visiting accommodation in the Maze.<ref name="report">[https://web.archive.org/web/20180916150305/http://www.billywrightinquiry.org/report/page/286-background/ The Billy Wright Inquiry: The August Riot and the Loyalist Volunteer Force's Return to H-Block 6: Background. p.286]</ref>

Wright continued to direct LVF operations from the prison, although his deputy Mark "Swinger" Fulton served as its nominal leader. LVF membership increased during Wright's imprisonment; by October 1997, membership in the organisation was between 150 and 200, many of them former UVF members disillusioned with the ceasefire.<ref name="report40">{{Cite web|url=https://cain.ulster.ac.uk/issues/collusion/docs/wright_140910.pdf|title=The Billy Wright Inquiry: Billy Wright's Influence From Prison. p.40}}</ref> It was afterwards discovered that he had kept an irregular diary whilst in prison. On some of the pages he had made subtle threats to Catholic human rights solicitor [[Rosemary Nelson]] (killed in 1999 by a [[Red Hand Defenders]] car bomb) and her client, IRA prisoner [[Colin Duffy]], charged with killing two RUC constables (the charges against Duffy were later dropped).<ref name="nelson"/> Wright's appeal was scheduled to be heard in February 1998.