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00:00:00This is the gunman from Berkeley last night.
00:00:10You police have took too much off me over the years.
00:00:13You won't have a look at how you think you can take your missus.
00:00:17I'm coming to get you. I'm not on the run. I am coming to get you.
00:00:30I was in Sunderland Police Station, a relatively quiet night, nothing really to report.
00:00:57I was working with a young sergeant at about 20 to 3 in the morning.
00:01:03I said, let's get our coats on. It's time to get out of the building and go home and get some sleep.
00:01:08Are we ready to go? And he said, no, somebody's been shot in Berkeley, in Gateshead.
00:01:12In the control room, we're on the phone now, and they need to speak to you right now.
00:01:19A 999 call was received. This is what we would call a dynamic situation.
00:01:24It's developing on the phone as you're speaking.
00:01:27The information at that time was there's a man outside, and he is shooting people.
00:01:37He is killing people. You cannot send unarmed cops to that. You've got to send armed cops.
00:01:45There was somebody in urgent need of medical care on the ground outside who, it appeared, had been shot.
00:01:51And it became apparent that there was someone else in a house who'd been shot through a window.
00:01:58The initial assessments were that the female had a gunshot injury to her left arm and her abdomen.
00:02:05She was described as critically ill and required urgent medical attention, so she was removed to hospital.
00:02:14The male had gunshot injuries to his torso and to his head.
00:02:21It was quickly obvious that he had been shot dead.
00:02:23I'd just had a few days away from work, and I got a call from the news desk asking me if I would do some overtime.
00:02:34And the story had broken.
00:02:36I parked my car close to a main road and just walked the last few steps into the estate.
00:02:45And it looked like, you know, quite a neat council estate, the kind of place where children would all play on the green together outside.
00:02:55And I got the impression that the families who lived around the green were all fairly close.
00:03:02The police had told us that there were three people downstairs in the living area.
00:03:10So it was the mum, it was the daughter, and it was the daughter's boyfriend.
00:03:15And they'd been watching television and just chatting into the early hours when this horrible violence was visited upon them.
00:03:28And it came out of nowhere as far as they were concerned.
00:03:35The victim was a lad called Christopher Brown.
00:03:39And the female was Samantha Stalbard.
00:03:46And Christopher Brown was her new boyfriend.
00:03:50Critically, the mother of Samantha Stalbard named the attacker is a man called Raoul Mote.
00:03:58Raoul Mote was the ex-partner of Samantha Stalbard.
00:04:04So very quickly we could see we were looking at a domestic-style attack here.
00:04:15What the witnesses were saying was that an individual had confronted the couple, shot the male, and as the male tried to run away, followed him, reloaded his gun and shot him again in cold blood.
00:04:30And he was lying in a grassed area in the middle of the houses.
00:04:37The evidence to me suggested that Christopher was targeted.
00:04:42And certainly the attack I would describe as a cold-bloody's assassination.
00:04:50Raoul Mote then turned his attention to the female and he fired through the window and hit her.
00:04:57He then quite calmly walked away for the scene.
00:05:08My name's Jamie. I was a colleague and a friend of Christopher Brown.
00:05:13The morning of July the 3rd, I made my way over to Samantha's house.
00:05:22As I went to go to her house, I remember seeing the whole area cordoned off with police tape.
00:05:30So I was wondering what was going on.
00:05:35I tried phoning Chris to see if I could get hold of him.
00:05:40But to no answer.
00:05:43I realised that I couldn't just walk across the grass area towards Samantha's house.
00:05:51I knew that if I went round the streets, I could get to the back of her house.
00:05:58I remember knocking on the back door and a neighbour shouting over,
00:06:04Are you looking for Samantha?
00:06:08I said, yeah, do you know where they are?
00:06:11And I initially thought he said they'd gone to the shop.
00:06:16Um, I asked which shop.
00:06:20In case, you know, they might still be there.
00:06:23He then said, no, someone's been shot.
00:06:26A detective came and spoke to me.
00:06:33I was sitting in the back of a car.
00:06:37And that's, that's when she told me that, that Chris had been shot dead.
00:06:45And that Samantha had been shot and was critically wounded in hospital.
00:06:51There's no sign of the weapon.
00:07:00So our working assumption is that he's travelling somewhere
00:07:04and he's got the firearm in his possession.
00:07:06Therefore the threat still exists.
00:07:08What we didn't know at the time, this wasn't anybody.
00:07:14This was a particularly ill-motivated, cold-blooded killer
00:07:19that was out there.
00:07:22You immediately have a manhunt.
00:07:24You know who you're looking for.
00:07:26The next question is, where is he?
00:07:28And how can we catch him?
00:07:30As soon as possible, safely as possible,
00:07:34before he injures anybody else.
00:07:49This is a major incident.
00:07:53Someone's been killed, so there's a homicide.
00:07:55Someone else has been very badly injured with a firearm.
00:07:59And the suspect is on the run.
00:08:03We've got the helicopter up.
00:08:05We're using everything we have.
00:08:07There were dozens and dozens of people in all spheres.
00:08:10So, you know, the investigation team, they were out.
00:08:13The intelligence team were out.
00:08:15The scenes of crime people were out.
00:08:17The lead investigator was there,
00:08:20making decisions about what to do first.
00:08:23In the early stages, Moat's house was searched.
00:08:27There was evidence of shotgun ammunition.
00:08:31There was a strange situation where there's a noose in the loft,
00:08:34as if somebody wanted to hang themself.
00:08:38There was some suicide notes,
00:08:40or notes with suicidal thoughts on them.
00:08:43There was an indication that he might be somewhat paranoid
00:08:47because he had his house covered in CCTV.
00:08:51There were some associates and family members,
00:08:54and we looked at all of those in terms of trying to trace them,
00:08:57but, of course, none of those provided any fruit.
00:09:00The forensic examination of the scene in the subsequent hours
00:09:06revealed shotgun residue, shotgun cartridges,
00:09:10and there was a bag at the scene underneath the window of the house,
00:09:14and there was a telephone,
00:09:16which we later attributed to being Raoul Moat's telephone.
00:09:20You've also got all your witnesses around the scene.
00:09:23People in the area woke up and were alerted to what was going on,
00:09:26and some people had very clear views of what was happening,
00:09:31so they had to be seen and spoken to.
00:09:37There was no firearm left at the scene,
00:09:40so the manhunt becomes all the more difficult and dangerous
00:09:44because you're hunting someone
00:09:46who's quite clearly willing to use a gun in front of witnesses.
00:09:51Extreme level of violence, cold-blooded,
00:09:53and that tells me that the offender was,
00:09:57I'm no psychologist,
00:09:59but was probably quite psychopathic and brutal in his approach
00:10:03to what he was doing and quite determined.
00:10:08A couple of days after Chris had been killed,
00:10:13I actually got a phone call from the police force
00:10:16asking if I could be the one to formally identify Chris.
00:10:20That's probably one of the worst things about it,
00:10:24is still having that vision of seeing Chris.
00:10:29And, um, yeah, knowing that that was my friend that was,
00:10:35that was there,
00:10:37and that had had his life cut short for no reason.
00:10:41For no reason.
00:10:46Raoul Moat's personality and the life that he led,
00:10:51details of that, quickly started to emerge.
00:10:54The fact that he'd been a nightclub bouncer,
00:10:57that he was a former bodybuilder,
00:10:59he could turn from someone who was relatively rational and calm,
00:11:07into a violent thought.
00:11:12It took a lot of steroids to help him bulk up as big as possible,
00:11:16and people who knew him well just described him as a massive man,
00:11:18he was six foot three tall, a very imposing character.
00:11:22He was known to Northumbria Police.
00:11:25He had a bit of domestic abuse history
00:11:28and low-level assault.
00:11:31However, it is significant that his last arrest was for assault
00:11:35on a young person,
00:11:37for which he later received an 18-week sentence of imprisonment.
00:11:41And for me, it shows you the type of person you're dealing with.
00:11:45Somebody who's willing to assault women and assault children.
00:11:52Moat had a very complex relationship history.
00:11:56He'd had multiple partners, multiple children.
00:11:59He was a very difficult person to live with.
00:12:01None of the relationship lasted.
00:12:03His relationship with Samantha did last quite a number of years.
00:12:07They met when she was about 16-year-old.
00:12:09He walked on the doors, she was attending the nightclubs in Newcastle.
00:12:14They got together.
00:12:16She moved in with them in 2005-ish, when she was 17-year-old.
00:12:20They had a child together.
00:12:34This is Raoul Moat, and this is an audio log,
00:12:36a record of what I'm doing, what I'm thinking.
00:12:40I like Sam a lot.
00:12:41From where before we went out,
00:12:43me and Sam started seeing each other in 2005.
00:12:46Sam was different.
00:12:47You know, we loved each other.
00:12:49And we were inseparable.
00:12:51Absolutely inseparable.
00:12:53However, there was a lot of unreported domestic abuse
00:12:56through their relationship.
00:12:58He was very prone to jealousy.
00:13:00He was very jealous about any interaction she had with other people.
00:13:05Incidents of assaults, controlling behaviour.
00:13:10Trying to keep on top of wherever she was going or if she was out with friends.
00:13:14I mean, there was one day when I've lost it.
00:13:17I've pushed her and she's hit the floor and she's split her head.
00:13:20You know, I was gutted.
00:13:22Absolutely gutted, you know.
00:13:24I'm pissed off, you know, with myself.
00:13:26As a result, the relationship started to break down and she moved out in 2009.
00:13:31Although they were separate,
00:13:35Raoul was never convinced that the relationship was over
00:13:41and was always intent on getting back together again.
00:13:45And the problem for Samantha in trying to sever the relationship was the child.
00:13:51She was giving him access to the child.
00:13:53So they always had this contact.
00:13:55And during the contact, all he wanted was to get Samantha back to him.
00:13:58He was obsessed by her and wanted her back.
00:14:04I used to go around and give her flowers.
00:14:07It showed that I do love her, you know, and I do care.
00:14:10If you want to call it obsession, call it obsession.
00:14:13I would just call it, like, deep-seated love, you know.
00:14:17Missing her, needing her, and that kind of thing.
00:14:20I couldn't take her out of me mind.
00:14:23She's like a joke to me, you know.
00:14:28In 2010, when he'd gone to prison, she'd just had enough.
00:14:31She wanted to be away from him.
00:14:32She didn't really know how to extricate herself from this difficult relationship.
00:14:37And he didn't like the fact that she wasn't coming in to visit him.
00:14:40I think there was an incident in the visiting area where she refused to give it either kiss or cuddle him.
00:14:48And I think that sent him back to his cells quite angry.
00:14:51And it appeared to me that when he was in prison, that was her opportunity to finally say,
00:14:57Raoul, this has finished, it's over.
00:15:00And I think when Samantha eventually revealed that she had a new boyfriend, that sent him on the spiral to find out who he was and to do him some harm.
00:15:11He was gripped by this paranoid rage that he needed to take some action because he'd lost his girlfriend.
00:15:17Mote was refusing to, A, accept the relationship was over, and B, accept that she would have the audacity to have a new love interest, a new boyfriend.
00:15:27She was clearly trying to use that time when he was in prison to put an end to the relationship for good.
00:15:33I started karate, I think I was around eight or nine years old, and once I got into it, I really, really got into it, and I loved it from that moment.
00:15:49When I was going through training on becoming an instructor, Chris was the person that I was to shadow, and that's how we became friends as well.
00:16:00With training, he was quite a scary guy, very loud, very focused, but outside of training as a person, he was a really friendly, gentle, funny guy.
00:16:17Always great to be around, always trying to make you laugh.
00:16:20Yeah, he was a very positive person to be around.
00:16:22Chris met Sam, we were canvassing around the area that she'd lived.
00:16:30Chris got Samantha, signed up for the classes.
00:16:34That's how those two first met.
00:16:36And you could see that there was a spark between them.
00:16:40She had a really bubbly personality, she was really friendly, she loved to have a laugh.
00:16:45I think that's probably one of the main reasons that he was, he was attracted to her.
00:16:54I knew that Samantha had spoken to her ex-partner about Chris, and that she was happy, and that she told her ex-partner to leave them alone.
00:17:05What became apparent was Samantha, when she was speaking to Raoul, I think one of her mechanisms for protecting herself was she told Raoul that Christopher Brown was a police officer.
00:17:22She'd said that for understandable reasons, because she hoped that it would put Raoul Moat off and give her some protection.
00:17:29Because she knew just how violent he could be.
00:17:34She thought that by telling him that her new partner was a police officer, he'd back off.
00:17:39Moat being Moat, it was the complete opposite, it was a red rag to a bull.
00:17:43And it sort of really drove him on to seek revenge.
00:17:48He started planning to kill or cause serious harm to Christopher and Samantha from his prison cell.
00:17:57He was getting one of his friends to try and do some surveillance and go and sit at Samantha's house and try and find out who this boyfriend is, what he looks like, what car he might be driving.
00:18:14And his efforts to try and identify Christopher started at that early stage from within prison.
00:18:19He asked a friend to get a car with six wheels on his release.
00:18:28It looked like prison code for him to source a gun for his release.
00:18:34Because I don't know of any cars that are six wheels.
00:18:37He thought he'd lost everything.
00:18:39He thought he'd lost access to his children because of the charge he'd been convicted of.
00:18:42He'd lost his partner. He's lost his property.
00:18:46In his mind, he's got nothing more to lose.
00:18:48So he's going to go out in a blaze of glory by taking revenge against the people that he sees are at the heart of triggering this huge loss in his life, which is Samantha and her new partner.
00:18:58In normal circumstances, when you get a manhunt like this, they normally take hours and there's normally a trail to follow.
00:19:11But this whole thing went strangely quiet.
00:19:14There was nobody telling us anything about him.
00:19:17There was no telephone to follow because he left it at the scene.
00:19:20We had no vehicles because all these vehicles were accounted for.
00:19:22We were fishing in a very, very, very big ocean trying to find him.
00:19:30Then, in the early hours of Sunday morning, the control room at Northumbria Police received a 999 call.
00:19:38And it was from a man claiming to be Rahul Mote.
00:19:42Hello there, this is the gunman from Berkeley last night. My name is Rahul Mote.
00:19:46And what I'm calling about is to tell you exactly why I've done what I've done, right?
00:19:52Now, my girlfriend has been having an affair behind my back with one of the officers, this gentleman that I shot last night.
00:19:58He said, I'm the gunman from Berkeley.
00:20:01In his mind, he was convinced that the police were out to get him and he couldn't let that thought go.
00:20:08He admitted shooting Christopher Brown, who he believed was a police officer, and declared that he hated Northumbria Police.
00:20:16So, once you got the police officer, I wouldn't have shot him.
00:20:20OK.
00:20:22I went to jail, right?
00:20:23OK.
00:20:24I was picked up by you for preventing your kids, which I didn't do.
00:20:26And meanwhile, when I'm doing that to my missus, she's having an affair with one of your officers.
00:20:30And you police have took too much off me over the years.
00:20:33You have passed with me for so many years.
00:20:35They've come anywhere near me and I'll tell you this.
00:20:37I'm coming to get you, I'm not on the run.
00:20:39I am coming to get you.
00:20:40Because I am hunting for officers now.
00:20:42And that's when he makes the chilling threat that he's hunting police officers.
00:20:49He made it quite clear in that call that he would stop any police officer who got in his way.
00:20:58A lot of the staff are very concerned, they're worried.
00:21:01Every police officer that goes out of the building is potentially a target of this man who's still active and on the run with a gun.
00:21:11I'm not afraid to use it.
00:21:12I'm not afraid to use it.
00:21:13I'm not afraid to use it.
00:21:14I'm not afraid to use it.
00:21:15I'm not afraid to use it.
00:21:16I'm not afraid to use it.
00:21:17It's just a mask.
00:21:18Around 12 minutes after that 999 call,
00:21:38Raul Moat crept up onto Dave Rathband's marked Volvo T5 police car
00:21:44that was parked just on the Western Bypass to the west of Newcastle.
00:21:48It's a place that's quite common for emergency vehicles to sit because it's got a big paved
00:21:54area so David was sitting there monitoring traffic coming back and forward.
00:21:59That's what David was doing.
00:22:00He was doing his job and Moat effectively creeped up on him and took him by surprise and David
00:22:09became aware of something at his left hand side and he turned and there was a gun put
00:22:16it up against the window and it was fired and it hit him in the face.
00:22:21And Moat, and this again goes back to his, his mindset and his brutality and cold bloodedness,
00:22:33shot him again and that hit him in the shoulder.
00:22:37He fell into the footwell but he was able to hit his emergency button and he started shouting
00:22:44for assistance.
00:22:46It's really rare for police officers to be shot at in the UK fortunately but to be shot at at point-blank range whilst parked in his police car.
00:22:53Wow.
00:22:54Absolutely incredible.
00:22:55It was clear in my head at that time that the investigation had never happened.
00:23:00It's really rare for police officers to be shot at in the UK fortunately.
00:23:08David Rathband had been shot in the face simply because he was a police officer.
00:23:09You know, he was taken to hospital.
00:23:10David Rathband had been shot in the face simply because he was a police officer.
00:23:11You know, he was taken to hospital.
00:23:12And the atmosphere changed.
00:23:14It was quite sombre and emotional and he was, it was a very, very powerful thing.
00:23:17It was a very, very powerful thing.
00:23:18It was a very powerful thing that the investigation had now escalated to a whole new level.
00:23:25David Rathband had been shot in the face simply because he was a police officer.
00:23:34You know, he was taken to hospital and the atmosphere changed.
00:23:39it was quite sombre and emotional there was police officers of lots of
00:23:45experience found it very difficult to accept a cop had been shot he was
00:23:52critically ill and there was a bit of emotion there I don't mind admitting it
00:24:01just shows that the police officers are human and I think it gets rightly or
00:24:08wrongly it gets personal when one of your colleagues gets shot
00:24:13rightly or wrongly but there was a determination
00:24:19I'm going to need more firearms officers so we're trying to get some of them out
00:24:24of their beds at 4 5 6 o'clock in the morning and make sure that they are
00:24:28suitably briefed and deployed as soon as soon as possible the need for firearms
00:24:35officers to search houses or locations just went through the roof I remember
00:24:41colleagues from South Yorkshire from the Metropolitan Police from Merseyside
00:24:46Police from Greater Manchester so armed officers were coming from forces all
00:24:51over England to support us in that policing operation there was a growing
00:24:57sense of man on the run you know somebody who's armed who's exceptionally dangerous
00:25:05it vastly increased that public interest in the story there's no two doubts about that this
00:25:14wasn't a regional story this was a national story
00:25:17astonishingly Moe then makes a second call
00:25:23are you taking me serious now I've just told your officer they're owned about in the West End of Newcastle
00:25:28yeah yeah well I'm going to destroy you a few ladies like you've destroyed me
00:25:32I'm going to keep coming for you you're going to have to kill me
00:25:37right
00:25:38I'm never going to stop
00:25:39basically so say see I told you so I've done it I've shot a police officer he
00:25:44weren't taking me seriously and he made it clear that he's not going to stop until
00:25:48he completes his mission he's never going to be brought in alive
00:25:52eerie and very threatening you can hear the aggression and his voice the hatred he's
00:26:00convinced that the police have hounded him to death have made his life a misery and that
00:26:10he's done nothing wrong he's not willing to accept responsibility for anything he's done
00:26:14it's all everybody else's fault it was a very real concern that he would go and identify and
00:26:22shoot another random police officer doing their duty around Newcastle he said he was going to do it
00:26:27it was a concern that he would we go into almost the form of lockdown police officers that are
00:26:34deployed and they only go out in cars they're going out together we're not walking beats singularly
00:26:40this is a an awful individual intent on causing as much harm as possible and not afraid you know
00:26:48normally people that are on the run avoid the police on the contrary on this occasion he'd gone
00:26:54after the police it really was um unusual and um and very concerning
00:27:00we got a phone call from somebody in Newcastle who's saying he's a friend of
00:27:06Raul Mo and he's got this letter that Raul Mo's written passed to him and he wants it to be made public
00:27:11we went to this this guy's house we took possession of the letter first reading of it it's just unbelievable
00:27:18the level of detail the background detail the detail of remote young life and the constant
00:27:24page-by-page paranoid rage and rantings and he's targeting on the police and certain phrases leapt out
00:27:31you know about hunting police officers and it clearly brought it home to you that this guy was
00:27:36not going to stop there was going to be further attacks but it went beyond that it made it clear that
00:27:40he'd had issues his family he was estranged from all of his family apart from his grandmother who
00:27:44brought him up never knew his dad estranged from his mother estranged from his brother he clearly
00:27:48painted a picture of an isolated man who was left on his own he'd lost everything and he was now set
00:27:54on revenge I've had a hard life I've not belonged anywhere I'm estranged massively for me family you
00:28:04know I've lost absolutely everything I mean the kids are treasure but I know I can't have them with
00:28:10some great you know they make me out to be this this dangerous man what is a dangerous man gonna do
00:28:18when he's at the like end of his life the random nature of what he'd already done was shocking so I
00:28:31remember there being a distinct feeling that anything could happen
00:28:35I've got two hostages at the minute right come anywhere near me I'll kill them as well
00:28:45more had mentioned that on the treble nines I've got hostages and it was a bit of a
00:28:50oh moment we might have a genuine hostage situation
00:28:57is this just another ramblings of a maniac but Sunday afternoon I was informed that there was an
00:29:06individual saying her brother might be being held hostage then I get another bit of information and it
00:29:14was another family saying we think our son is a hostage of Raul Moat and that was a very sobering
00:29:22moment because we've now got not only the lives of the public and police officers who he's threatened
00:29:30to kill we've now got two hostages that we need to consider on everything we do moving forward up until
00:29:40that stage the whole investigation was very very over we were appealing to the public we were telling the
00:29:46public stuff through the media in terms of the hostages their safety and their life becomes a
00:29:53priority we had to be a bit more covert in our investigations because there is always the
00:30:03concern that any reference to hostages may put their lives in danger the moment was story was a very
00:30:10fast-moving story every single day there was a huge development and on the Monday there was a request
00:30:14by the police not to report that fact because if it became widely known he had hostages it might
00:30:18prove a greater risk to the hostages so there was a request for a media blackout the media complied with
00:30:23that and it wasn't reported we recovered from letters from the hostages that had been delivered to
00:30:32family members basically saying that they were being held hostage by Moat and they were quite
00:30:42suspicious so we say although they were claiming they were hostages they were quite tempered about
00:30:48saying don't worry and I think one of them actually said I'll be fine on this
00:30:54the two hostages one of them is a lad called Carl Ness and from information and intelligence it was quite clear
00:31:09that Carl Ness was quite a long-standing friend and associate of Moat but the other one was a lad called
00:31:16Quaram Awan and his association to Moat was less obvious
00:31:24one important development was that the police found on the CCTV at the roundabout where David
00:31:35Rathband had parked a car going around the roundabout it was a black Lexus and you know this was obviously
00:31:45an important potential lead for the police to follow up where is this car where is it going to turn
00:31:52up next on the Monday night there was a reported robbery in Seaton Delaville in Northumberland an individual
00:32:02went into a chip shop presented a gun and robbed the shop of the takings that individual got into a black car
00:32:12described as a wreck that was really noisy and drove off at speed very quickly we identified that the man responsible
00:32:25was Raoul Moat later on the Monday night it was established that Awan owned a black Lexus and it hadn't been accounted for
00:32:34so the decision was made to appeal to the public for sightings of that
00:32:43it was the number one question where is Raoul Moat
00:32:48we were relying on sightings by the members of the public to tell us where we should be looking
00:32:55I think there would be somebody would tell us why they're overtly or covertly and there was just nothing
00:33:04I think people were almost trying to second guess what could happen next where could he go is there
00:33:11anywhere where somebody might harbor even you know dangerous criminal like this has he been receiving help
00:33:21from anybody else the silence was deafening so where was he had he left the area
00:33:36I come in to do my shift at six o'clock on the Tuesday morning and then we get the call to say that the car's been sighted in Rothbury
00:33:47the woman had seen that car in a small market town about 30 miles north of Newcastle which was Rothbury in the heart of Northumberland
00:34:02there was also a bit of intelligence from a former girlfriend that he liked to go camping in that area and had done as a younger man
00:34:09and that was the first big break the place had that that's where he might have gone to
00:34:14you could just feel how attractive Rothbury would have been to Raoul Moat
00:34:21Raoul Moat knew that landscape he was familiar with it he knew where to hide
00:34:27so of course from then on all the attention shifted to Rothbury
00:34:33the police descended on Rothbury in large numbers the media went to Rothbury in large numbers
00:34:41and suddenly the whole nature and focus of the investigation changed to this beautiful little rural town
00:34:51with a population of just over 2,000
00:34:54on Tuesday the black Lexus was found in an industrial estate in Rothbury
00:35:03it was very quickly secured by armed police officers
00:35:07the police helicopter was up there very quickly to scan the area and it quickly identified two males
00:35:17who were walking away from the vicinity of the car and at that stage it was two men
00:35:23was it victims was it hostages was it more
00:35:26well my name is Peter Blake and I'm the biological father of Raoul Thomas Moat
00:35:33well my name is Peter Blake and I'm the biological father of Raoul Thomas Moat
00:35:47it was on the 3rd of July 2010 I was listening to talk sport on the you know on the radio
00:36:00and I heard something about a gunman and then it said three words Raoul Thomas Moat
00:36:13I just froze I thought that's my boy
00:36:20in 1972 I was working in Annick in Northumberland and then I met a young lady she was very attractive
00:36:32she had a lovely voice and a lovely laugh and we started going out together
00:36:40and then one day she said I'm pregnant and at that point she seemed very relaxed and happy
00:36:52but as the days went on the situation changed she became quite withdrawn
00:37:01and then one evening she said I don't want to see you anymore I said well what about the baby
00:37:14and she said it's my baby and I said it's my baby as well he needs a father
00:37:20and she said go away don't want to see you that's it finished well I felt terrible
00:37:27but it was apparent to me at that point that there was nothing I could do
00:37:32I hung around in Newcastle for a couple of years hoping that the situation would change
00:37:44but it didn't and in the end I thought I've got to move away from this area and get on with my life
00:37:51which is what I did
00:37:54I never saw my little boy
00:37:57until I saw him on television
00:38:01and pictures of him in the newspapers
00:38:04it's strange really because it was lovely to hear his voice
00:38:17but on the other hand what he'd done and what he was proposing to do
00:38:23you know it was quite shocking
00:38:26I've always loved him you see
00:38:28I mean I always knew that that I loved him he was my son and I loved him
00:38:35and it was very difficult you know knowing what he'd done
00:38:42but it didn't change the way I felt about him
00:38:51I remember we were monitoring this in live time from the downlink from the helicopter
00:38:56and we could see these two individuals
00:38:59we weren't sure who they were
00:39:01was it just two individuals who were totally innocent and coincidentally being there
00:39:07but you've got to remember one of these could have been Raoul Moat with a gun
00:39:11who had threatened to shoot police officers
00:39:13so the helicopter was able to monitor them until such times as the appropriate firearms teams could get there
00:39:20the firearms team used distraction explosives to confuse them and arrest them safely so that if any of them were armed they wouldn't have been in a position to turn the gun on the police officers
00:39:35the message came back to me that it was Ness and the one we were able to interview them as quickly as in the back of the van and ask where's Raoul where is he Ness was saying they hadn't seen him in days
00:39:50Awan was a bit more forthcoming and saying I saw him this morning and he's disappeared
00:40:09when they're both telling different stories it became pretty clear that they were actually more likely to have been associates and helped him and that's when I made the decision that we arrest them for conspiracy to murder
00:40:24and they stepped out of the hostage zone and into the suspect zone
00:40:31there was a degree of disappointment and that it wasn't more but by the same token it was the best break we'd had in terms of he's round about there somewhere
00:40:41there was a cordon put on the town of Rothbury which was regulating who was coming and going
00:40:49there were police officers with dogs there were snipers there was a police helicopter there were hundreds you know they were everywhere
00:41:01there was this potential sighting in the school and calls getting made to put the school into lockdown and that would have been your worst nightmare is if he had got into the school
00:41:12I was head teacher of Dr Thompson Church of England Middle School in Rothbury
00:41:19it's quite a small middle school but big for a rural area and it had round about 220 students in there
00:41:27Rothbury is the kind of area that people don't tend to move away from
00:41:32it's a beautiful area it's got a fantastic supportive network real village type feel in there
00:41:38so the summer term was unfolding we'd had a sports day we were coming towards the end of term a normal July just like every other year
00:41:51on Tuesday the 6th of July I arrived at school expecting a normal day
00:41:57then police arrived around school and I remember one of the armed police asking me to get the children away from the windows in the dining hall
00:42:07I think we all realised that Moat was in the area what happens if there is a shootout what happens if he arrives at school
00:42:17nobody knew exactly what his next move was going to be who he might target who he might attack
00:42:23and for a terrifying few hours there was a real concern that we could have another Dunblane
00:42:29I still remember the feeling in the pit of my stomach of the fear of what events could unfold
00:42:37I remember being frightened but wanting to remain calm and wanting to keep the school just as calm as we could
00:42:45by about 2 o'clock in the afternoon we realised that we weren't able to let the children go home
00:42:51so we started to put the plans in place for a lockdown for the school
00:42:55we started to think further ahead about if we had to camp down for the night with the children in the school
00:43:01what we were going to do
00:43:03we sort of put videos on for the children we let them play and started to communicate with parents
00:43:08that we would keep them up to date with information from the police system as we had it
00:43:13the thing that I remember most of all was this sort of double kind of existence that was going on
00:43:21that the rural town and people going about their everyday business with this massive manhunt
00:43:29I think it was one of the biggest manhunts in police history
00:43:35by the end of the day once the police had allowed some movement in the village
00:43:41it was around about 7-8 o'clock at night that parents were allowed to come and collect the children
00:43:45and this is when you saw how stressful some of the children had found it
00:43:50the minute they saw their parents you would see them burst into tears and parents hugged them
00:43:54and it was then a real awareness of actually how intense it had been for the children as well
00:44:04when the accomplices had been arrested the police obviously then they've got now a
00:44:07this is a concrete lead he has been in that town
00:44:10then that's when the search widens and then very quickly after that they located the campsite
00:44:17it had been wrecked the tent turned upside down the barbecue turned upside down
00:44:21and this is where we believed they had been staying for the last 48 hours or so
00:44:27they had been sitting there through the day
00:44:31it turns out that Moat had been monitoring the media there was newspapers and there was a radio
00:44:37and listening to that but importantly there was a dictaphone
00:44:43a lengthy account ramblings lecture from Moat about what he done and why he done it
00:44:54and the content of that dictaphone was listened to
00:45:01for every lie I see in that paper or any paper
00:45:05I'm going to kill an innocent member of the public, right?
00:45:09I'm just going to continue killing people, it's as simple as that
00:45:12that was the first time that he had moved his focus from the police being under threat to the public being under threat
00:45:22it means that anybody's a target now and that again changed the whole level of risk for the operation
00:45:30The day after the dictaphone had been found we attended the daily briefing from the police
00:45:39but this day was different to all the previous days
00:45:42Moat had now made threats to the press
00:45:45a bit of an alarm silence fell across the room
00:45:47could Moat turn his gun on one of us?
00:45:49it got a whole lot more tense and dangerous because it felt like every single one of us
00:45:57the police, the media, the people in the town, we were all potential targets
00:46:05it's a tricky situation to manage but the chief officer team were very clear in that
00:46:11we tell the truth to the public, no secrets
00:46:13no secrets
00:46:14and they actually went out and did a number of briefings to the public about this threat
00:46:21so don't go wandering in areas that are isolated or maybe change your routine a wee bit
00:46:28maybe keep an eye on your kids, all that sort of thing
00:46:31the big question that they had was why haven't you caught them?
00:46:35and, er, trust me there was a number of sessions particularly towards the end of the week
00:46:43where we stood scratching our heads going, where is he?
00:46:47and the question was asked
00:46:49do you think he's got a way?
00:47:04there was probably a feeling that if you throw a blanket over Rothbury we'll get him
00:47:08but it would have to have been a big blanket
00:47:11it's a huge landscape with lots and lots of challenges
00:47:16for search, for firearms, for dog section
00:47:24moors, woodland, if you'd got the kind of determination that moat had
00:47:31you can make use of all these opportunities to hide
00:47:35we used the Royal Air Force using flyovers and they can take imagery that was looking for any disturbance, hides, that sort of thing
00:47:48they used an RAF jet with heat-seeking equipment
00:47:51it was incredibly rare for the police to sort of call on the military to help in an investigation
00:47:54and the other one was the search expert, Ray Mears, who's worked alongside the search teams that have fallen through the wooded areas and the crags
00:48:10how is he surviving? I mean you can't go very long without food and water before it has a real effect on you
00:48:14so he must have been getting something from somewhere
00:48:17he kept moving from one spot to another to another to lay low
00:48:23but there were other times where he did seem to just go right into the town
00:48:30to apparently take vegetables from people's gardens
00:48:34people were saying that they had seen him
00:48:36there was other areas where he might have been seeing farmhouses broken into
00:48:41was he hiding round about there
00:48:43so is it moat that was responsible?
00:48:45is he looking for food?
00:48:46is he looking for somewhere to sleep?
00:48:48it's been a strange day
00:48:50I've been to the shops
00:48:52and I'm now in a nice little park
00:48:54people walking past
00:48:56but on an island
00:48:57not one person has recognised us today
00:48:59when I've been out and about
00:49:01I was literally right on the animals
00:49:03you haven't got any bobbies on the beat
00:49:04it's amazing how you scurry and hide when somebody fights back
00:49:13it's possible that
00:49:15Raoul Moat might have been
00:49:18enjoying the cat and mouse game
00:49:23he must have thought that
00:49:25one way or another
00:49:27he was in charge
00:49:28not the police
00:49:30he was the one
00:49:31almost sort of moving the figures around the board
00:49:37when you're looking for an armed man
00:49:39that says he's going to shoot people
00:49:41openly, declares war on your force
00:49:44there was a degree of confidence that this was going to end up with
00:49:48a face-to-face confrontation
00:49:50a face-to-face confrontation
00:50:06can I stress to the public that Moat is still at large and we need to locate him
00:50:13members of the public are advised to remain indoors
00:50:19and await further instructions
00:50:24the 24-7 operation of the command room
00:50:28was 12 hours on, 12 hours off basically
00:50:31and I wrapped up and left
00:50:33and handed over to my colleague about
00:50:386pm on the Friday
00:50:41and drove home
00:50:43I remember on the Friday night
00:50:45getting home
00:50:47tally on
00:50:49browsing, glass of wine
00:50:51and then
00:50:53seeing on the news
00:50:54that there was
00:50:56something heating up in Rossbury again
00:50:58there was a knock at the door
00:51:00and it was my firearms tactical advisor
00:51:03who had run from the room to tell me
00:51:06he's been seen
00:51:10I was home
00:51:12probably 15 minutes
00:51:15and the telephone rang
00:51:17and it was my colleague to say
00:51:19we've got him
00:51:21and my first question is
00:51:23where is he?
00:51:25Rothbury
00:51:27relief
00:51:29we held our nerve
00:51:30we maintained our focus
00:51:31he was there
00:51:33I was taken
00:51:35very quickly
00:51:37to manage the scene
00:51:38on the spot
00:51:39on the ground
00:51:41and during that drive
00:51:42I remember thinking
00:51:43despite the amount of messages
00:51:44and radio traffic
00:51:45and phone calls
00:51:47that
00:51:48thank God
00:51:49we've got him
00:51:50at last
00:51:52I was watching television
00:51:55and all of a sudden
00:51:57there were pictures of Raoul
00:51:59holding a gun to his head
00:52:01on the river bank
00:52:03at Rothbury
00:52:05we've now got some
00:52:06armed police officers
00:52:08pointing weapons at him
00:52:10and I've got all these resources
00:52:12running around
00:52:14to make sure that we've got everything else we need
00:52:16there's armed police officers there
00:52:17with guns
00:52:18Mort has a gun
00:52:19more hates the police
00:52:20what's going to happen
00:52:21is he going to turn the gun on the police officers
00:52:24that was clearly your concern
00:52:27he looked a bit disheveled
00:52:29as if he'd been living rough
00:52:31and you know whilst he was having some sort of dialogue
00:52:34with the officers who were in front of him
00:52:37but he wasn't forthcoming
00:52:39he was you know
00:52:41very belligerent
00:52:43and dismissive
00:52:44the routine would be to negotiate with them to a surrender
00:52:49we would introduce trained negotiating staff
00:52:53because the negotiation is about coming to a surrender safely
00:52:57they had a specialist negotiator there
00:53:02whose job it is to develop communication
00:53:05you know
00:53:07try no matter how difficult the situation to develop
00:53:12some kind of rapport almost with the individual
00:53:17they wanted to take him alive
00:53:20they wanted people to be able to see that justice was done
00:53:25I knew what he'd done
00:53:30but
00:53:32my love for him overrode that
00:53:36I was his father
00:53:39and
00:53:41I just felt
00:53:43that
00:53:45I had to do something for my son
00:53:47I'd never done anything for him
00:53:50and I wanted to do something for him
00:53:53that was a very very powerful and strong feeling
00:54:00I thought that if I'm not there
00:54:03he might
00:54:05rush at the police
00:54:07and they might shoot him
00:54:12it's a really peaceful setting
00:54:14and there's no traffic going past
00:54:15because the road's cordoned off for safety
00:54:18it's as manageable
00:54:20for the people trying to negotiate a surrender as possible
00:54:23they don't want distractions
00:54:24they don't want lots of things going off in the background
00:54:27they're going to cause any surprises
00:54:30otherwise things could go horribly wrong
00:54:35they were trying to give him reasons to
00:54:39to carry on living basically
00:54:41appeal to
00:54:42what they hoped would be his more human side
00:54:46remind him of his children
00:54:49let them not have to carry
00:54:51this knowledge and this memory
00:54:53for the rest of their lives
00:54:59he said at one point
00:55:01nobody cares about me
00:55:05which suggests that he kind of accepted that
00:55:08it was coming to an end for him
00:55:12I'm not going to be around with a few years
00:55:14right?
00:55:16I'm not coming in a line
00:55:18you'll get your chance to kill us right?
00:55:20you'll get your chance to kill us
00:55:21I felt utterly helpless
00:55:26you know
00:55:28there's nothing I could do
00:55:30what I would like to have done
00:55:32is for the police to have said
00:55:35your dad has come forward
00:55:37and he wants to speak to you
00:55:40I would have said
00:55:42to him
00:55:44I'm your dad
00:55:45we're in a bit of a mess here aren't we
00:55:49you know
00:55:51I don't want you to die
00:55:53and I would like it now
00:55:55if you put an end to this
00:55:58and
00:56:00put the gun down
00:56:02you're not surrendering to the police
00:56:05you're surrendering to me
00:56:07your dad
00:56:08each and every friend
00:56:13family member
00:56:15would have been thoroughly risk assessed
00:56:17and a decision made
00:56:18whether they were suitable or unsuitable
00:56:20depending on the circumstances
00:56:22given the situation he was in
00:56:25any sort of intermediary there
00:56:27would present quite a high risk
00:56:29it might have got to a stage where they think it was appropriate
00:56:32but it certainly wasn't at that stage
00:56:34there's a feeling of expectation that
00:56:39something was going to happen sooner or later
00:56:43that would close the story
00:56:45we didn't know what that was going to be
00:56:48this has gone on for hours and hours and hours
00:56:51and now we are planning for a worst case scenario
00:56:55we're thinking that if this isn't going to end peacefully
00:56:59it's going to end horribly
00:57:00horribly
00:57:14Ramos is now contained
00:57:17contained above all away from the public
00:57:20in a situation where the outcome can only be an arrest
00:57:23or the ending of his life
00:57:24the standoff had been going on for about six hours
00:57:34then shortly after 1am
00:57:36the police who were closest to him
00:57:38noticed a significant change in his demeanour
00:57:40he'd been lying down with a shotgun in his head
00:57:43and it becomes apparent that something's about to happen
00:57:46something's changed
00:57:49it's sort of agonising
00:57:50because there you are
00:57:51you can see your son
00:57:53and six hours have gone by
00:57:57he's not handing himself in
00:57:59and then there was a shot
00:58:14and there was shouting
00:58:15I just heard the noise and we're all looking at each other thinking what was that?
00:58:32but it becomes apparent quite quickly that he shot himself
00:58:36people tried to save his life
00:58:39people tried to save his life
00:58:41whether they were firearms officers or whether it was the negotiators
00:58:45everybody there that night wanted to save his life
00:58:48and then they took him off in an ambulance
00:58:56and I thought, oh, perhaps the gun didn't go off
00:59:00or perhaps, you know, he's still alive
00:59:05and I was hopeful
00:59:07but then when the ambulance arrived at the hospital
00:59:11the commentator said
00:59:12his head was covered with a blanket
00:59:16and I thought, well, that's it
00:59:18he's dead
00:59:20I watched him die on television
00:59:23and it was awful
00:59:26I was back at home with my family
00:59:27back at my parents' house
00:59:29and watching the news
00:59:30where it was kind of a
00:59:31a bittersweet reaction to how it ended
00:59:48you know, I wanted him to face justice for what he'd done
00:59:51but at the same time
00:59:53it was relief knowing that he couldn't harm anybody else
00:59:57Moat made the decision to turn the gun on himself
01:00:10and shoot himself
01:00:12and take
01:00:14in my view, the coward's way out
01:00:16so that he didn't have to account
01:00:18for his behaviour
01:00:20over the last week or ten days
01:00:23By him ending it in the way he wanted to
01:00:26he remained in control
01:00:28if he'd have been arrested and put on trial
01:00:31he would have suffered a loss of control
01:00:33and I think that's one key factor
01:00:35about why he was
01:00:37he always intended it to end in a certain way
01:00:39and he achieved that
01:00:41I personally think he had no intentions of coming quietly
01:00:44I think he wanted to kill himself from the start
01:00:47because what was realistically going to happen to him
01:00:50he was going to prison forever
01:00:51forever
01:00:52and
01:00:54that's not a very positive outlook for anyone
01:00:57so
01:00:59his alternative is worth
01:01:00very few and far between
01:01:02I just wanted to know why
01:01:06he did what he did
01:01:09what was his reasoning behind
01:01:12taking someone's life
01:01:15and trying to take somebody else's life
01:01:20Samantha was the mother of one of his children
01:01:25and
01:01:27there's just
01:01:29something in my head
01:01:30that I think it's like
01:01:32you can't comprehend
01:01:33what could make you want to harm someone in that way
01:01:36when I went into work on the next morning
01:01:48I've got a couple of people in custody
01:01:50who are now looking at charges relating to the murder
01:01:54of Christopher Brown
01:01:56the attempted murder of Samantha Stobard
01:01:59and the attempted murder of David Rathband
01:02:01Karl Ness and Karam are one
01:02:02always claimed that they were hostages not accomplishes
01:02:06they insisted they didn't help him
01:02:08Ness
01:02:10hero-worshipped
01:02:12Moat to a certain extent
01:02:14and conducted surveillance on his estranged girlfriend
01:02:18while he was in prison
01:02:20Ness had helped Moat source the gun
01:02:22and then he'd taken him to the scene of the first shooting
01:02:25and there was text messages between Ness and Moe shortly before he carried out the shooting
01:02:30there was a CCTV had to be looked at
01:02:33it showed that Ness and Moat
01:02:38basically did inquiries to try and find who Christopher Brown was and where he may work
01:02:45Awan only came onto the scene after the Berkeley shootings
01:02:50but played a full part in the shooting of David Rathband
01:02:54in the robberies
01:02:55in the driving around
01:02:57also CCTV showed Ness and Awan
01:03:01out in their own shopping without Moat
01:03:03immediately after the Berkeley shootings
01:03:05and they bought two mobile telephones
01:03:07they still had possession of one of them
01:03:10the other one was Moat's
01:03:12and significantly Raoul Moat and Ness went to B&Q in Newcastle
01:03:17and they caught CCTV buying a tent
01:03:20the evidence against the two of them was incontrovertible
01:03:27they were with Raoul Moat
01:03:29all the crucial elements of the offences
01:03:32and then stayed with him as he remained at large through the following days
01:03:34at court Ness was told that he won't be considered for release until he had served 40 years
01:03:48and Awan was told he wouldn't be considered for release until he had served 20 years
01:04:02I think you've really got to remember that there were three victims, three key victims here
01:04:18and we should never forget this
01:04:20for the families I hope that they get a crumb of comfort in the fact that there is people sitting in a prison
01:04:26serving a big sentence for the role that they played in that
01:04:32I want people to remember Chris for the bubbly, cheeky, passionate man that he was
01:04:43he always tried to make people laugh
01:04:47he always wanted to make the best of any situation
01:04:53he was a great guy and it was a pleasure to have known him
01:05:02he was shot and blinded on duty
01:05:05today his attackers henchmen were convicted of his attempted murder
01:05:09I have a lifetime to live and they have a lifetime to reflect
01:05:14I'm sure I'm in a better place than them
01:05:15David lost his sight, became a national figure, focused himself on charity work
01:05:25but became quite troubled with everything that was going on
01:05:28and his marriage broke down
01:05:30and I really feel for the fact that one moment you're an able-bodied traffic cop doing the job you've always dreamed of
01:05:37and then suddenly you've lost your sight and he just can't do that job again whether you like it or lump it
01:05:45and it's so sad that eventually David took his own life a couple of years after all this went on
01:05:52and let's not forget that Royal Moat caused that deliberately
01:05:57he went out of his way to find a police officer that was David Rathband
01:06:02and I think that's, that really tells you exactly what sort of individual he was
01:06:09Moat had a choice
01:06:11he didn't have to do what he did
01:06:13he could have accepted the fact that his time with Samantha was finished
01:06:18they had a child together
01:06:21he could have been a father to that child
01:06:23but now he's not
01:06:25ultimately the people who pull the trigger
01:06:28or wield the knife
01:06:30they have the choice
01:06:32the victims don't always have a choice
01:06:33that's for it
01:06:48and
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