Copyright dailypost
A former cinema site once run by a notorious serial killer has been sold after lying empty for decades. The cinema - initially named the Scala - was opened in Denbigh back in 1928. It later became the Wedgwood Cinema in the late 1970s before closing and then reopening as the Futura in the 1980s. The cinema closed again in the early 1990s before being revived by a man named Peter Moore. He was praised at the time for reviving a small local cinema - a place where couples and families would visit. It was one of a chain of cinemas he operated, with others in Bagillt, Holyhead and Blaenau Ffestiniog. Moore was known as an eccentric local figure who always wore black but no one suspected the horrors he was committing away from the auditorium. In the early hours of Christmas Eve morning, 1995, at Llandudno police station the Nazi-obsessed Moore admitted a three-month killing spree that left four dead. It had begun on Anglesey in September, in a spree that terrorised the gay community in North Wales and Merseyside. Sign up for the North Wales Live newsletter sent twice daily to your inbox He later withdrew the confession and pleaded not guilty at his trial but was convicted at trial. At Mold Crown Court in November 1996, Moore was sentenced to life imprisonment with a recommendation that he never be released. Although Moore didn't own the Denbigh site, the cinema closed and never reopened to show films again. Over the years the site has fallen into rack and ruin - becoming an eyesore on the junction of Love Lane and Highgate, a grim reminder of the past. A redevelopment into homes was previously approved but never progressed and the site has been on the market with Monopoly estate agents for £50,000. Now there are hopes the land could finally be developed after the site was sold, subject to contracts being exchanged. In the listing, the agent said: "The former cinema site has sat empty for a number of years and offers a 0.13 acre site which has had planning previously which has now elapsed. Potential owners would be wise to contact the conservation team at Denbighshire to discuss options they would see as acceptable." Dylan Rhys Jones, the lawyer who defended Moore and later wrote 'The Man in Black - Peter Moore - Wales' Worst Serial Killer, said it would be good to see a new development to help remove this grim reminder of the past. He said: "I was living in Denbigh at the time, and before the arrest the reopening of the cinema was seen as a good thing - there was a lot of buzz around the resurrection of these cinemas in small towns. The idea was good but as it turned out the man behind it clearly was the wrong person. "When he was arrested they all closed - more and less. I think only Holyhead has reopened of those he ran. His involvement made it hard for sites to reopen as cinemas again. "In some ways the cinemas were a conduit for the crimes he committed. They enabled him to travel up and down the A55 on a daily basis and allow him to commit the crimes." He added: "The site in Denbigh has been an eyesore for a long time. A new development would be a good way to move on from the past." The 1995 murders began when Moore, who always dressed in black, stabbed 56-year-old Henry Roberts to death at his home near Caergeiliog, Holyhead – there were 27 wounds in the retired railway worker’s body. The reign of terror continued as Edward Carthy, a 28-year-old man whom Moore met in a gay bar in Liverpool, was stabbed to death in Clocaenog Forest in the October, followed by Keith Randles, a 49-year-old traffic manager from Chester, in November 1995 on the A5 in Anglesey. His final victim was Anthony Davies, 40; stabbed and left to die on Pensarn Beach, near Abergele in December. Join the North Wales Live WhatsApp community group where you can get the latest stories delivered straight to your phone
