Who was Raoul Moat, why did he go on the run and what happened to him?
16.04.2023 - 20:15
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
ITV is launching a brand-new true crime drama that recalls one of the biggest manhunts in modern Britain. Premiering on Sunday (April 16), The Hunt for Raoul Moat shines a light on the human tragedies that lay behind Britain’s biggest manhunt, told through the eyes of those who sought to bring a violent killer to justice.
The drama focuses on the innocent victims of Moat’s crimes, the police officers who put themselves in the firing line in their quest to apprehend him, and a local journalist who sought to tell Moat’s real story in a landscape of sensationalist reporting and social media provocation. In July 2010, Moat, an ex-convict, went on the run after shooting three people in 24 hours.
Despite Northumbria Police’s best efforts, he evaded them for over a week, threatening to kill police officers and members of the public. The manhunt played out against a warped perception of Moat as an ‘anti-hero’, a persecuted victim fighting back against the authorities.
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The reality was an armed sociopath who declared war on the police. Before becoming known as one of the UK’s most notorious fugitives, 37-year-old Raoul Moat, from Newcastle upon Tyne, worked as a bouncer, a bodybuilder and a tree surgeon.
Moat had a history of violence and in February 2010 served an 18-week sentence at Durham prison for assaulting a nine-year-old relative. The former bodybuilder was said to be 6ft 3in tall and approximately 17st, and later described in the press as having a “hulking” physique.
He was also prone to enormous amounts of rage. While in prison, his former girlfriend and mother to his young daughter, 22-year-old Samantha Stobbart, lied and said her