You Could Do Something Amazing with Your Life [You Are Raoul Moat]
Page 12
Your pulse is strong.
You’re not breathing.
At 1.29am you leave Rothbury in an ambulance. They drive you through the countryside. The weather’s bad. A convoy of police cars comes with you. They take you to a hospital in Newcastle, half an hour away. The doctors and nurses are waiting.
They take you out of the ambulance.
You’re on a trolley.
They take you inside.
Something is hanging from your hoodie with wires attached. A nurse cuts it away. There are three shotgun cartridges in your pocket.
The nurse removes them. A metal ball falls to the floor from your pocket. She leaves it for the police.
You have a non-survivable shotgun wound to the head.
It’s 2.16am. You’re dead.
…
At 2.30am a chief inspector at a police station in Jarrow starts gathering initial accounts from officers who were there during the stand-off. Only three officers choose to provide accounts. Their solicitor reads out the accounts on their behalf.
The first,
I was the bronze commander at the scene. I briefed the officers on the parameters given to me by silver support prior to deployment. This included the independent use of less lethal options should the subject indicate that he intended to commit suicide. These options included the use of the X12 weapon.
The second,
In accordance with the set parameters I discharged the X12 because I believed he was trying to commit suicide as he put his gun to his head.
The third,
In accordance with the set parameters I discharged the X12 because I believed he was trying to commit suicide as he put his gun to his head.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission [IPCC] begins an investigation into the stand-off [in their subsequent report they describe the initial accounts as scant].
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Northumbria Police announce that they fired tasers at you.
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At 5pm on Saturday a pathologist cuts you open. Investigators from the IPCC watch. There is soot on the right side of your skull.
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Two days later your uncle identifies your body.
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On Tuesday July 13 a Northumbria Police officer finds a projectile on the riverbed in Rothbury. Police officers also look for the gun you said you left near a tree at Cragside. They find the location you described in detail, but there’s no gun.
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People leave flowers and notes at your house and at the riverbank in Rothbury. One of the notes says,
RIP Raoul. You were not helped and failed by the system massively.
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On July 14 Prime Minister David Cameron tells Parliament,
As far as I can see it is absolutely clear that Raoul Moat was a callous murderer, full stop, end of story, and I cannot understand any wave, however small, of public sympathy for this man. There should be sympathy for his victims and for the havoc he wreaked in that community. There should be no sympathy for him.
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On July 21 a second post-mortem is carried out by a different pathologist. Both examinations find abrasions on your body from living rough in Rothbury, an entry wound on the right side of your head, an exit wound on the left side, a complex skull fracture and extensive brain injury. There is also a U-shaped abrasion and bruise on the lower part of your arm which is consistent with a tangential blow from a taser projectile. They can’t tell if it emitted a charge. You died from a shotgun wound to the head.
…
Angus and your friends empty your house. There are kids’ toys in the garden. Computer games have dust on them. There are recordings of meetings with police and the council on your laptop. In the loft are stacks of videotapes containing footage you recorded with your CCTV cameras. There are piles of paperwork, including Mr Trimmit flyers [If you’ve got it I’ll Trimmit] and lots of bills. One bill is from Littlewoods. The amount owed is £1075.12, which includes a debt-collection fee. It says court proceedings will start if the minimum payment of £322.20 is not made promptly. There’s a letter from Your Homes Newcastle. You owe them £52.08. There’s a letter from Newcastle City Council saying you have to repay £723.76 in overpaid benefit. There’s a council tax bill. There’s a renewal quote from your insurance company. There’s a fine for £250.84 because you didn’t have the correct vehicle licence. It includes a £60 charge for not paying on time and a note saying you’ll have to pay in full within ten days or go to court and the fine will increase. There’s a bank statement from March that says you had £47.52 in your account. There’s a discharge letter from prison saying you received a grant of £46. There are letters about housing benefit, child benefit, child tax credit and working tax credit, and there’s a letter saying your application for incapacity benefit was rejected. There’s a letter from Your Homes Newcastle saying you’ve got three dogs, but your tenancy only permits one. There’s a letter from Your Homes Newcastle saying you need to remove the ramp you built. There’s a letter from Your Homes Newcastle saying they’re removing the ramp you built and you’re going to be charged for its removal. There’s a letter from the police that is dated July 22 2009 and says,
It has been reported that you on Factory Road, Gateshead, on 2nd March, 2009, did commit the following offence:
NO INSURANCE — USE
The letter says they’re dealing with the offence by issuing this written advice, but if you commit offences in the future then proceedings may be considered against you. This was the time you were pulled over by PC 190 [David Rathband] and they found copper piping and an old radiator in the vehicle, along with garden waste. They called an insurance bureau, who said you weren’t insured to transport scrap metal, so they interviewed you under caution in the back of the police car and a recovery truck took your vehicle away [David Rathband wrote in his book that he had taken an instant disliking to you and wanted to seize your vehicle, but his colleague didn’t, so he called a supervisor who agreed they should seize it]. You had to pay a release fee of £150, and £12 for each day of storage. A friend drove you home.
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On August 2 you’re cremated at the West Road Crematorium in Fenham. Angus is there. Your uncle is there. Friends are there.
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On August 12 samples of your blood and urine are sent to the Home Office. A toxicologist examines them and decides you were not affected by drugs or alcohol when you died.
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In March 2011 Karl and Sean go on trial at Newcastle Crown Court. Witnesses include Sam [who has recovered from her injuries] and David Rathband [who is permanently blinded]. Chris Brown’s mum is in the public gallery. The jury decides Karl and Sean are guilty of conspiring to murder police officers, attempting to murder PC Rathband, and of robbing Mr Lehmer Singh. The jury also finds Karl guilty of murdering Chris Brown and possessing a gun with the intention of endangering life. Sean gets a minimum of twenty years in prison. Karl gets a minimum of forty years in prison.
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Scott Raisbeck is sentenced to fifteen months in prison for moving the van, which was stolen from Hartlepool Borough Council.
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In June 2011 the IPCC produces a report about the night you shot yourself. It criticises the openness of officers involved,
The process of obtaining witness statements, particularly from firearms officers and principal police officers performing the role of negotiators, was problematic and extremely protracted. The IPCC were not afforded direct access to these witnesses and all communication was directed through Police Federation Representatives and Counsel. In light of this and in an effort to gather witness evidence, statements were requested at an early stage of the investigation but were not provided until early in 2011. The evidence that they provided was considered as essential to the progression of the IPCC independent investigation.
On receipt of the witness statements from the police negotiators, the content was found to be inadequate in assisting investigators in their understanding of the negotiators’ role, what they witnessed and any decision making during the incident. The IPCC requested further witness statements from these police officers who did, with the exception of , provide further detail.
The report includes comment from a detective chief inspector who criticises the negotiators’ use of a handheld digital dictaphone because it produced poor-quality sound and was too far away from you to record most of what you said. It also stopped recording an hour and a half before you shot yourself.
Also in the report is contribution from the Home Office’s taser expert. He describes the X12 taser as a shotgun that fires self-contained projectiles, giving it a longer range than normal tasers. When it hits a person, four prongs are supposed to penetrate the skin and produce an electrical charge. He says there is insufficient data to judge its safety and effectiveness. From post-mortem photographs of your body he believes a projectile hit your arm, but the prongs may not have penetrated the skin far enough to catch hold, possibly due to your thick hoodie.
The report says the Home Office had not approved the X12 or its projectiles. In the days before you died Northumbria Police were approached by Peter Boatman, a former police officer who became a director of Pro-Tect, which imported the X12. He delivered X12 shotguns and projectiles to Northumbria Police. Senior officers decided to use them despite knowing they were not approved. After your death the Home Office revoked Pro-Tect’s licence, and three days later Peter Boatman died due to inhaling carbon monoxide. He had been in a shed with a lawnmower running while the door was closed. The coroner recorded an open verdict.
[The IPCC found no evidence of misconduct by any police officers involved in the stand-off.]
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David Rathband’s book, Tango 190, is published in July 2011. In a section about plans for a legal claim against Northumbria Police, he says,
What frightened me the most was that the information was being concealed. Tapes could be deleted, logs might go missing. I knew this could happen and I was paranoid it might. My police mind was absolutely certain that the quicker you got the evidence preserved, the better position you were in.
[There is no indication that evidence was concealed, deleted or lost.]
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In August 2011 the IPCC produces a report about the sharing of information between Durham Prison and Northumbria Police [that version of the report is never released by the IPCC; it is amended in 2013 and a heavily redacted version is disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act in 2015]. The report says that on the morning you were released, one of your fellow prisoners told two prison officers that you were planning to hurt Sam. One of the officers wrote a short report saying,
MOAT was released 1/7/10 from HMP Durham. After his release I was advised by [another prisoner] that he has plans to seriously assault his partner. He also stated whatever the outcome he would not be returning to prison.
According to the coroner’s conclusion at the inquest into the death of Christopher Brown, the officer handed that report to the security manager at the prison. The security manager gave it to an analyst. The analyst read the report in the afternoon, added Sam’s name and address and a recommendation that it be sent to the police liaison officer, then returned it to the security manager. The security manager wrote that action was required within seventy-two hours [the other options are twenty-four hours or immediately] and sent it to the governor. The next morning the prison governor found the report, read it and decided it should be seen by the police liaison office [which was staffed by police officers] and offender management unit [which was staffed by probation officers]. The report was sent to another analyst, who finished some other work, then took it to the police liaison office at 11.30am, where it was left in a box. The police liaison officer was unaware it was urgent. The analyst returned to her desk and distributed a synopsis of reports as usual.
A probation officer received the synopsis of reports and noticed your threat so she called Gateshead’s probation office. They knew nothing about you, so she phoned Gateshead’s domestic-violence police unit and asked for the senior officer. She was told the senior officer was unavailable, but was put through to another officer. The probation officer explained the threat [it is disputed whether she mentioned serious assault] and the police officer, a colleague, and later their boss, tried to find more information. They found the names of several of your former partners, but no mention of violence between you and Sam. They asked the probation officer to find out more information.
The probation officer hung up and spoke to the police liaison officer at the prison. The police liaison officer found the report in the box and gave it to the probation officer, but it revealed little new information. The probation officer called the domestic-violence unit again to let them know. The officers in the domestic-violence unit discussed what they could do, but made no more calls, and finished their shifts at 4.30pm.
Meanwhile the police liaison officer at the prison emailed a report to Northumbria Police’s intelligence bureau. It arrived just after 4pm. Officers monitoring the inbox left work at 4pm.
[The coroner said,
I am not satisfied that the information we have had and the information which was available, and I stress available, was used inappropriately and therefore I am not satisfied that a failure to use that information has directly caused Christopher’s death or indeed contributed to it.]
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In September 2011 the jury at your inquest is told you were hit by one taser projectile before you died. It was fired because officers thought you were about to shoot yourself. The projectile knocked you backwards. You yelped, then sat up and shot yourself. The projectile did not incapacitate you. Nor did it cause you to involuntarily shoot yourself. Another projectile was fired at you, but missed. The jury decides you killed yourself. One of the witnesses at the inquest is a man called Peter Blake. While in the witness box he loses his temper and says to the coroner,
You’re not being fair.
The next day he goes to Rothbury to calm down. Peter looks like you. He’s your dad. He’s not a farmer. He’s not French. He never lived in France. He’s from Birmingham and he studied at the London School of Economics. After graduating he worked at Solihull Borough Council until he saw a job being advertised for the position of deputy town clerk in Alnwick, a small town in Northumberland. He applied because it sounded like an adventure.
In January 1972 he moved to Alnwick, and lived in a guesthouse where the owner made excellent food. He bought a Capri and started driving to Newcastle for nights out. In February 1972 he met Josephine Moat in a dancehall. Peter liked her a lot. She was pretty and had a lovely voice with a slight Geordie accent. She told Peter she already had a child and was living with her mum in Fenham. Peter visited her the next week and met her little boy, Angus. He was a happy little boy. Peter asked where his dad was and Josephine said he never visited and they’d never married.
Peter started courting Josephine. In April they moved to a cottage in a remote Northumbrian village called Longhorsely. Peter thought Josephine was perfect and she called him her Heathcliff, but Josephine quickly became unhappy. Peter offered to take her to the doctor. She said she’d already been. She said she was pregnant and didn’t want to stay in Longhorsely anymore. She told Peter she thought the cottage was haunted. She wanted to go home.
Peter, Josephine and Angus moved back to Josephine’s mum’s house in Fenham, but Josephine’s mum thought Peter and Josephine should marry. So Peter bought a ring, but Josephine didn’t want to get married, and Peter couldn’t live there without being married. So he left and went back to the guesthouse in Alnwick. He carried on courting Josephine, but she decided she didn’t want to see him anymore. He wrote letters, but she ignored him. Then Peter found out that you’d been born. She’d ca
lled you Raoul.
Peter knocked on your gran’s door, wanting to see you, but nobody answered. He knew your mum was inside. He could hear her. He lost his temper and shouted through the letterbox. A police officer came and told him to calm down and threatened to arrest him. Peter left. Then a solicitor’s letter arrived asking Peter to leave your mum and you alone. Peter consulted a lawyer. He was told he had no right to see you because he wasn’t on the birth certificate. He asked a vicar to intervene. It didn’t work. He contacted the local benefit office in case your mum sought financial help. He got nowhere. He didn’t know what to do. He told his dad he was doing badly at work and drinking heavily. His dad said to move on.
Peter hung around for another year, but then left the North East and moved to Croydon, where he moved in with a woman and became stepfather to her children. He told his new family that a red-haired man named Raoul might knock on the door one day. He told them you were his son. He used to toast you on your birthday, and sometimes he wondered whether to hire a private detective to find you, probably on your fortieth birthday, but he never tried to contact you. Instead he heard something on the radio. A man named Raoul Moat had shot some people. He knew it was his son.
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You never met your dad.
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In February 2012 David Rathband is found dead in his home. A coroner says he deliberately hanged himself. You did that.
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In December 2013 a coroner holds an inquest into the death of Chris Brown. He died of shotgun wounds. You killed him.
AUTHOR’S NOTE
The main source for this book was Raoul Moat, who left behind spoken and written material including audio recordings he made on the run, a 49-page confession he wrote on the run, recordings of his 999 calls before and after shooting PC David Rathband, recordings of phone calls he made while in prison, audio recordings he made during the final years of his life, training diaries, a psychological questionnaire, his correspondence, and six suicide notes he left in his house.