When police cornered Raoul Moat in 2010, some hailed him as a modern Robin Hood, but as a new TV drama sets out to prove, that couldn’t have been further from the truth
In July 2010, violent criminal Raoul Moat, 37, was released from Durham Prison after serving a four-month sentence for assault. Two days later he shot his former girlfriend and her new partner with a sawn-off shotgun. Christopher Brown was killed. Samantha Stobbart, with whom Moat had a daughter, was seriously injured. Only hours later, Moat shot PC David Rathband in the face. Rathband survived but was blinded.
Moat went on the run and, after a huge, week-long manhunt, was spotted in the Northumberland town of Rothbury. A six-hour stand-off with armed police followed before the former nightclub bouncer shot himself.
One of the most extraordinary things about this whole terrible saga was the fact that some people took to social media to declare their admiration for Moat, viewing him as a kind of anti-authoritarian icon, meting out rough justice to those who had wronged him. The ‘RIP Raoul Moat You Legend’ Facebook page attracted 30,000 subscribers before it was eventually taken down.
This three-part dramatisation of those events opens with a scene depicting Moat’s deluded fans laying flowers at the site of his death on its one-year anniversary. ‘We’re here because Raoul Moat is a hero to us,’ says one, who has travelled all the way from Surrey.
But then we flash back to the events leading up to Moat’s release from jail and subsequent events. This is a well-made, gripping drama that shows that Moat was certainly no hero. While careful not to give any cause for complaint that it is glorifying crime, it is definitely a series that viewers will be talking about.
Violent criminal Raoul Moat, 37, was released from Durham Prison after serving a four-month sentence for assault
The Hunt for Raoul Moat dramatisation airs on ITV1 from Sunday to Tuesday at 9pm
There are good performances from Sonya Cassidy and Lee Ingleby (above with Cassidy and Vineeta Rishi). Sally Messham (inset), playing Samantha Stobbart, is excellent. It is abundantly clear how terrified she is of the abusive, bullying Moat (Matt Stokoe, above left). The scene in which she summons up the courage to visit him in prison to tell him to stay away from her is a difficult watch.
But the question is, why are we watching it at all? Is this a suitable subject for a prime-time drama? The writer, Kevin Sampson, has said he spoke directly to Brown’s family and they want him to be remembered.
In contrast, members of Stobbart’s family are against the project. One of her sisters, Kelly, told a newspaper: ‘My whole family and I all feel that it should be left in the past.’ And we don’t know Rathband’s thoughts because, tragically, he took his own life in 2012.
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