2010 Northumbria Police manhunt: Difference between revisions

Search for fugitive Raoul Moat

The 2010 Northumbria Police manhunt was a major police operation conducted across Tyne and Wear and Northumberland with the objective of apprehending fugitive Raoul Moat. After killing one person and wounding two others in a two-day shooting spree in July 2010, the 37-year-old ex-prisoner went on the run for nearly a week. The manhunt concluded when Moat committed suicide in a stand off with Police near the town of Rothbury, Northumberland, following a six-hour standoff with armed police officers under the command of Northumbria Police.

Moat’s victims were his ex-girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart; her new partner, Chris Brown; and a police officer, David Rathband. Stobbart was hospitalised and Brown was killed, while Rathband remained in hospital for nearly three weeks and was permanently blinded, before dying by suicide on 29 February 2012. Moat shot the three with a sawn-off shotgun, two days after his release from Durham Prison.

After six days on the run, Moat was recognised by police and contained in the open, leading to a standoff. After nearly six hours of negotiation, Moat was shot with an experimental “wireless long-range electric shock weapon” firing electrified rounds whilst Moat held a shotgun to his own head. He was later pronounced dead at Newcastle General Hospital. Following an inquest, it was ruled by a jury that Moat’s death was a suicide and Northumbria Police were found to have been at no fault.

The manhunt began after the shootings of Stobbart and Brown in the early hours of 3 July 2010 in Birtley. Nearly 22 hours later, the shooting of traffic officer Rathband, parked in East Denton, was linked to Moat, who was believed to have held a grudge against the police after Stobbart had lied that Brown was a police officer. Shortly after his release from prison, Moat posted threats to police and others on his Facebook profile.

Moat apparently targeted Rathband randomly, simply for being a police officer, although, on an earlier occasion, Rathband had confiscated Moat’s van on the suspicion that it was not insured. Moat also made threats, in two letters and several phone calls, that he would kill any officer who attempted to stop him. Both the police and some of Moat’s relatives made several appeals for Moat to give himself up for the sake of his children. After a sighting on the night of 5 July in an armed robbery at Seaton Delaval, on 6 July it was announced that Moat was believed to be in Rothbury. The manhunt remained focused there with several further suspected sightings, until the final confrontation at Riverside, Rothbury.

The manhunt lasted almost seven days, and was the largest in modern British history, involving 160 armed officers and armed response vehicles, many seconded for the operation from other police forces. Police also used sniper teams, helicopters, dogs, armoured anti-terrorist police vehicles from Northern Ireland, tracker Ray Mears,^[1] and even a Royal Air Force jet for reconnaissance. In the course of the hunt, there were several raids and false alarms across the region. With Moat believed to be sleeping rough, police found his abandoned camp-sites and property as he evaded capture. Armed guards were also posted outside Rothbury schools after police announced that they believed Moat posed a threat to the wider public. Several people were arrested during the hunt and after Moat’s death, suspected of assisting him with equipment, information, and in evading capture and selecting targets.

On 5 July, Northumbria Police announced that Durham Prison had told them three days earlier that Moat intended to harm his ex-girlfriend. As a result, Northumbria Police voluntarily referred the case to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). Following the final confrontation, the IPCC expanded the investigation to include the immediate events leading up to Moat’s death but ruled out investigating how the manhunt itself had been conducted.

Background[edit]

Raoul Thomas Moat (17 June 1973 – 10 July 2010)^[2] was a panel beater, bouncer, and tree surgeon from Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne & Wear. His mother reportedly had bipolar disorder, and he and his half-brother Angus were mostly brought up by their grandmother as their mother spent much time in mental hospitals.^[3] Prior to the shootings, Moat had attempted to get psychiatric help.^[4][5]

Between February and July 2010, Moat served an eighteen-week sentence in Durham Prison for assaulting a nine-year-old relative.^[6][7][8] A former bodybuilder, Moat was said to be 6 ft 3 in (1.90 m) tall and approximately 17 st (108 kg or 238 lb), who was prone to “eruptions of anger”.^[9][10] He had a young daughter with his ex-girlfriend, 22-year-old Samantha Stobbart,^[11][12] and two other children from a previous relationship. Although Moat had been arrested twelve times resulting in charges for seven separate offences, he only had one previous conviction for common assault.^[13]

Moat…