It was the country’s biggest ever manhunt, involving 160 armed officers, and over a week in July 2010 it had the nation gripped.
Raoul Moat, the ex-con who had seriously injured his ex-girlfriend, killed her new boyfriend and blinded a police officer with shotgun blasts, went on the run and was hiding out in the wilds of Northumberland, where he gained a ghoulish cult status after attracting the unlikely interest of football legend Paul Gascoigne.
Now ITV’s three-part drama The Hunt For Raoul Moat, airing this week and starring Bodyguard’s Matt Stokoe as the killer, tells the full story of the former nightclub bouncer’s rampage, the errors that allowed it to happen and the terrible human cost of the tragedy.
Just before his spree of violence, Moat, 37, had been in Durham jail, serving an 18-week sentence for assaulting a relative.
While inside his girlfriend Sam Stobbart had told him she had a new boyfriend. Moat then told a fellow inmate he’d harm her when he got out; the other inmate informed a prison officer of the threat, but when this information was passed to the police it was not acted upon.
Lee Ingleby as police chief Neil Adamson (second right) during the drama The Hunt For Raoul Moat’s re-creation of the final stand-off
On his release, Moat tracked Sam down, shooting and injuring her and killing her new boyfriend, Chris Brown. He then went on the run, blinding PC David Rathband before going to ground.
Bushcraft expert Ray Mears was called in to help track him down, and during the final stand-off by the River Coquet, Paul Gascoigne arrived in a taxi bearing lager, chicken and a fishing rod, claiming – falsely – he knew Moat and could persuade him to give himself up.
The former England player was denied access to Moat, who finally shot himself.
‘We follow what happened with Moat, but it’s also in part a love story,’ explains writer Kevin Sampson.
‘We get to know Sam and Chris in order to honour them.’
The primary focus is on the victims, he says, and the police’s feverish attempts to apprehend their target.
‘We did detailed interviews with officers who’d worked on the case to find out the minutiae.’
They included ex-Northumbria Police Chief Superintendent Neil Adamson, who led the hunt and is played by The A Word’s Lee Ingleby.
Now ITV’s three-part drama The Hunt For Raoul Moat, airing this week and starring Bodyguard’s Matt Stokoe as the killer (pictured)
On his release, Moat (pictured) tracked Sam down, shooting and injuring her and killing her new boyfriend, Chris Brown
‘It was clear he’d come under a great deal of pressure at the time,’ says Lee, who also got to speak to Mr Adamson. ‘The media and the public wanted answers.’
Matt Stokoe says it was vital to present Moat as the feral creature he was, rather than the anti-hero who was celebrated on social media.
‘I’m not surprised he became this hero figure, however horrific he was,’ says Matt. ‘There seems to be support for people like him, but he deserved no such recognition.
‘I grew up on the periphery of the community where these events took place. It felt close to home so it was really important to me we got our dramatisation absolutely right. The subject matter is so heavy that by the end of filming I felt a deep sadness which was hard to shift. I couldn’t shake the tragedy that lay at the heart of the story.’
Accuracy was also important for the production team.
‘The drama is never sensationalised. We’re trying to explain what happened, where errors were made by the police and other agencies,’ says executive producer Jake Lushington.
‘We’re not looking for cheap ratings, we’re using drama to inform.’
The Hunt For Raoul Moat, Sunday-Tuesday, 9pm, ITV1 and ITVX.
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