Criminal shot a mole - that's abhorrent (9)
I believe the answer is:
loathsome
'abhorrent' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'criminal shot a mole' is the wordplay.
'criminal' indicates an anagram.
'shot'+'a'+'mole'='shotamole'
'shotamole' is an anagram of 'LOATHSOME'.
'that's' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for loathsome that I've seen before include "gross" , "Disgusting, nauseating" , "Horrid" , "15 [ABHORRENT]" , "Detestable" .)