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One of Britain’s most extraordinary manhunts has been recreated for a brand-new television drama on ITV.
Sitting on the grass with a sawn-off shotgun, actor Matt Stokoe, 33, was yesterday pictured playing the killer Raoul Moat in his final moments before he took his own life.
In the early hours of July 3, 2010, spurned former bouncer Moat, 37, shot his ex-partner Samantha Stobbart in the stomach and murdered her new lover, Chris Brown, with a blast of his shotgun.
Just after midnight the next day, the fugitive dialled 999 to warn police he was hunting for officers.
When Moat spotted PC David Rathband parked up in a patrol car on a roundabout on the outskirts of Newcastle, he crept up beside the vehicle and blasted him in the face.
Rathband was blinded in the attack, and went on to take his own life in February 2012.
Moat took refuge with a pair of accomplices in Rothbury, Northumberland, but his actions triggered one of the nation’s most notorious manhunts.
Armed police were drafted in from around the country, survival expert Ray Mears was brought in to advise on where Moat could be fleeing, and RAF jets with heat-seeking cameras were deployed to canvas the north east of England in search for the killer.
The thug was eventually cornered by armed police and he shot himself in the head while negotiators tried to get him to put down his weapon after a six-hour stand-off.
Pictured: Raoul Moat, who was 37 at the time of a shooting spree across Tyne-and-Wear and Northumbria in 2010, in his mugshot photo from a previous conviction
Raoul Moat holds a shotgun to his head after being confronted by armed police in Rothbury. supplied via The Telegraph
Stokoe, famous for roles in the Channel 4 series Misfits, the BBC series Bodyguard and Sky’s Jamestown, is assuming the lead role of Moat
Sitting on the grass with a sawn-off shotgun, actor Matt Stokoe, 33, was yesterday pictured playing the killer Raoul Moat in his final moments before he took his own life
The ITV drama, which will tell the story of one of the most notorious manhunts in the UK, filmed the gripping scenes in Yorkshire with Stokoe in the lead role. Actors posing as police officers are pictured during filming this week
Police pictured in July 2010, during their confrontation with fugitive Raoul Moat
Stokoe, famous for roles in the Channel 4 series Misfits, the BBC series Bodyguard and Sky’s Jamestown, is assuming the lead role of Moat, while Sally Messham (Doc Martin) and Josef Davies (Chernobyl) will play Moat’s ex-lover Stobbart and murder victim Brown.
The drama will also star The A Word’s Lee Ingleby as Northumbria Police Officer Neil Adamson, who was among the main police officers searching for Moat while he evaded capture.
Sonya Cassidy (The Last Kingdom) and Vineeta Rishi (Holby City) have also been announced as cast members.
It is not clear if footballer Paul Gascoigne will feature in the show. Gazza famously turned up at the site of the police stand-off with a fishing rod and chicken dinner to try and talk ‘Moaty’ round.
The series has been titled ‘The Hunt for Raoul Moat’, though a release date is yet to be confirmed.
Born in 1973, Moat was bought up by his grandmother in Newcastle’s deprived West End – just a few doors down from his parents, Josephine and stepfather Brian Healey.
Moat was widely regarded as a man with an explosive temper; a muscle-bound bodybuilder addicted to steroids and anti-depressants who could flip at a moment’s notice.
In the years following the deadly rampage, several members of Moat’s family have expressed the pain they still feel as a result of their son’s actions and the abuse they are subject to.
Speaking out for the first time in 2020 – a decade on from her father’s killing spree – Katelaine Fitzpatrick told The Mirror about her lasting feelings of shame, disgust and abandonment.
Sally Messham, pictured right, has signed on to play Moat’s ex-lover Samantha Stobbart, who sustained severe injuries after being shot in the stomach by the crazed gunman
PC David Rathband, 44, a policeman who was left blind when Raoul Moat shot him in 2010, was found hanged in his home in Blyth, Northumberland, in 2012
‘I’m so sorry to the people he has hurt. If I had the chance to meet the victims and their families and say I’m so sorry for what my dad did, and show that I care, I would,’ Katelaine, who was 11 at the time of her father’s rampage, said.
‘Being his flesh and blood sickens me at times, it’s hard to believe who I am. I can’t believe I come from that man.
‘I’m so glad I didn’t know him, and that I became the person I am today despite all I have been through,’ Katelaine added.
Moat had always turned down opportunities to meet his daughter and had never spoken to her prior to the attacks.
Katelaine also said she became a victim during her school years as a result of other children bullying her with cruel taunts because of Moat’s actions.
Just months prior to Katelaine’s first-ever interview, Moat’s mother Josephine Healey gave her first statement to the press.
‘He is not my son,’ Healey told the Mirror in April 2020.
Moat was widely regarded as a man with an explosive temper; a muscle-bound bodybuilder addicted to steroids and anti-depressants who could flip at a moment’s notice
Pictured left to right: Step Dad Brian Healey, Mum Josephine Healey, Raoul Moat, aged 13, and Brother Angus Moat on Josephine Moat and Brian Healey’s wedding day in 1986
Moat’s daughter Katelaine Fitzpatrick (pictured in 2010 with her mother), said in 2020: ‘I’m so sorry to the people he has hurt. If I had the chance to meet the victims and their families and say I’m so sorry for what my dad did, and show that I care, I would’
She added that the incident still caused ‘a lot of trouble for me’ and said abusive messages are posted through her letterbox to this day.
At the time of Moat’s standoff with officers, when he threatened to kill any policeman who crossed his path, Mrs Healey spoke at length about her son’s dramatic change.
She said her gentle son disappeared at the age of 19, replaced by a snarling man who hated everything – and everyone.
He returned to her home after a lengthy absence in 2007 and, standing on the doorstep, made a gun gesture with his fingers before threatening to kill her.
‘Why would he do that?’ she asked on the penultimate day of Moat’s standoff. ‘It was like he was not my real son.’
‘He now has a totally different character, attitude and manner,’ she added. ‘Every last detail.’
Source: dailymail
