It’s been 15 years since steroid-addled murderer Raoul Moat was found by police hiding in a storm drain before killing himself following the UK’s biggest ever man hunt
11:01, 07 Jul 2025
PC David Rathband and twin brother Darren after the horror(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
The twin brother of a tragic traffic cop shot by murder Raoul Moat says police could have stopped the horror incident but didn’t pass on the killer’s chilling warning to its officers.
PC David Rathband was blasted in the face while on duty by Moat, who had earlier warned the Northumbria force that he was “hunting down police”, sparking the largest manhunt in UK history.
Moat shot and wounded his former girlfriend Samantha Stobbart and then killed her new partner Chris Brown, who he wrongly believed was a policeman, two days after being released from prison.
He then sent the chilling warning to the force, who did not pass it on to its bobbies, before he crept up on PC Rathband’s parked patrol car on the outskirts of Newcastle and shot him twice in the face.
PC David Rathband was blinded in the horror(Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
David was blinded by the attack and while he proclaimed himself lucky to be alive, he took his own life less than two years later aged just 44. Speaking ahead of the 15th anniversary of the horror, PC Rathband’s twin Darren — who was born just two minutes after his brother — slammed the force.
Darren, who said he doesn’t want people to forget his brother, told the Sun: “Honestly, if they set what happened to music it would be the Keystone Cops. They didn’t put out a warning to officers there was a man out to kill police.
“Chief Constable Sue Sim held a public meeting in Rothbury with the door wide open while a madman with a gun was on the loose. David got shot square in the face. He was seen as a hero, he had survived with a bit of pride.
Moat shot himself after a week-long manhunt terrorised the North of England(Image: SWNS)
“But Northumbria Police breached their own human resources welfare policy because they were supposed to give him counselling. They were supposed to get him to return to work, but they never did any of it.”
Moat’s shooting spree sparked a week-long manhunt across the north of England, which ended when he shot himself in the sleepy village of Rothbury.
After shooting Samantha and Chris, Moat then called the police and said: “I will keep killing police until I am dead. They’ve hunted me for years, now it’s my turn.”
Armed police on the streets of Rothbury as part of the major manhunt(Image: SWNS)
As a shocked nation watched the tense stand-off unfold between Moat and police on tv news, it took a bizarre turn England footy legend Paul Gascoigne turned up at the scene a fishing rod and chicken.
Gazza later said he’d snorted 14 lines of cocaine before heading to the stand-off site and thought he might be able to diffuse the situation.
Last week, we told how warped fans of the crazed killer are said to be plotting a boozy party in the village he terrorised to mark 15 years since his death.
The horror shocked the nation(Image: SWNS)
The site where the killer shot himself has become a ghoulish attraction for twisted individuals who are often spotted taking selfies.
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