6 Sep 2011

‘I want to kill as many police as I can’ – Raoul Moat

Fugitive gunman Raoul Moat left a message before he died saying he wanted to “kill as many police officers” as possible, his inquest is told.

Killer Raoul Moat's messages are read out at his inquest (Reuters)

A few days before he died after a stand-off with police in Northumberland, Moat left another message on his dictating machine making clear he would rather have a gun battle than go back to prison.

The recordings, read out at Newcastle Crown Court, said he felt he had lost the only adults in his life who mattered to him: his grandmother and former girlfriend Samatha Stobbart.

At the time, the 37-year-old was on the run from police after shooting Ms Stobbart, killing her boyfriend Chris Brown and blinding policeman David Rathband.

‘Take the shoot-out’

He went on: “If I went to jail now, I could hack it because I have lost everything and I have nothing to come out to. I have come out and got my vengeance.

“I have set Sam up for life, financially at least. But it is not really what I want. It would be a waste of a life and a waste of the taxpayer’s money. Just take the shoot-out and everybody’s happy.”

Moat said he could easily shoot himself, but “I want to kill as many police officers as I can”.

Superintendent Jim Napier, the Northumbria Police officer in charge of the investigation, told the inquest the message implied that Moat was considering provoking a shoot-out with the police.

Raoul Moat's best friend Anthony Wright told the inquest that Moat's former girlfriend Samatha Stobbart deliberately needled him by talking to him about her new partner.

In a phone call, Ms Stobbart told Moat she was seeing Chris Brown that night and asked if he was jealous. Mr Wright was asked if she was trying to "wind him up", and answered: ""Oh yes, without a shadow of a doubt."

While in prison, Moat heard that his relationship with Ms Stobbart was over and she was seeing another man. Mr Wright told the hearing: "It was almost inevitable that when he got out of prison he was going to look for a straightener with this man. If you knew Raoul it was like a red rag to a bull. I couldn't work out why she was saying it."

After killing Mr Brown and wounding Ms Stobbart, Moat rang his friend and told him: "I have done them." Mr Wright said: "He was calm. I would have expected someone to be more panicky."

Police ‘made mistake’

Moat’s half-brother Angus told the hearing he believed the police made a mistake in not allowing him to speak to the gunman during the stand-off.

He said he “should have been involved” in the attempts to “talk Raoul down”. Comments made by their mother could have made Moat feel that his family had turned against him.

“My mam had been to the press that week and had been on the front pages saying Raoul would be better off dead. I completely disagreed with that.

“I thought if I could speak to him it could change the way he was feeling and the way he would act. I thought the presence of some of his family members might change things. I don’t think it could have made the situation any worse than what was happening, certainly.”

Mr Napier said that during the week-long manhunt in July 2010, Moat had threatened to shoot members of the public if he read any more “lies” in the media about him. “This was the first time he had turned his anger towards innocent members of the public.”

Mr Napier said this was why so many armed police officers had been drafted in from across the country. The officer added that he would have preferred Moat to have been been taken alive. “It is a personal disappointment I never got to see Mr Moat account for his crimes.”

Mentally ill

Angus Moat, a tax inspector, said their mother was “severely mentally ill”, and he believed Raoul may have inherited her psychiatric problems. “I think he had an undiagnosed case of bipolar brought on by stress, being in prison, losing his business and his home.”