What happened to Raoul Moat victims – tragedy of blinded PC to Samantha Stobbart’s trauma after being ‘blamed’ by trolls
WHEN violent thug Raoul Moat went on the rampage in 2010, he left his ex’s lover dead and blinded a policeman before shooting himself.
The horrific crimes in Newcastle, which have been revisited in the new ITV drama The Hunt for Raoul Moat, sparked a mass manhunt as Moat went on the run for almost a week.
The 37-year-old killer was eventually surrounded by armed police in woods in Rothbury, Northumberland, where Paul Gascoigne famously attempted to lure him out with beer and a KFC, and a six hour stand-off ended when he turned the gun on himself.
As well as murdering his love rival, 29-year-old Chris Brown, Moat shot ex , then 22, twice in the stomach while their three-year-old daughter Chanel was in the house.
PC David Rathband, shot in the face at a roundabout on the A1 the day after the initial attack, spent three weeks in hospital but doctors were unable to save his sight.
The new drama, which stars Matt Stokoe as the murderer and Sally Messham and Samantha, has caused controversy with Moat’s dad Peter Blake slamming the production for ‘re-traumatising’ his grandchildren.
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And the killer’s crimes have left a tragic legacy for the victims who survived, with PTSD, flashbacks and suicide.
Marriage and tragic death
Moat’s crime spree began on July 3, 2010, just two days after he was released from prison, having served 18 weeks for an assault on a family member.
After murdering Chris Brown and critically injuring Samantha at her home in Birtley, Gateshead, he went on the run.
The following day he launched the unprovoked attack on David, as he sat in his patrol car in Newcastle, leaving him with devastating injuries that he was not expected to survive.
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Remarkably, the dad-of-two pulled through but he struggled to cope with blindness and the trauma he suffered in the attack.
In 2011, he told the BBC: “I do feel vulnerable and I’m sure other blind people do. It’s not very nice, I don’t like it.”
He added: “I think somebody gave me a Superman vest because I always thought I was invincible and now I realise that having been shot in the face and nigh on killed, I’m not invincible, I am just very lucky.”
He threw himself into charity work, setting up the Blue Lamp Foundation, to help other members of the emergency services injured in the line of duty, which earned him a Pride of Britain award.
But his marriage to wife Kath failed after David had an affair with a survivor of the 7/7 London terror bombings.
Tragically, less than two years after the attacks, the former officer, 44, took his own life at his home in Northumberland.
Widow Kath, 53, has since found happiness with prison officer John McGee, 54, who she wed in 2016.
Jekyll and Hyde
Samantha Stobbart met nightclub bouncer Moat in 2004, when she was just 16, and he was 31.
Their six-year relationship was mired in domestic violence, according to her sister Kelly, and Samantha left him on several occasions.
She told a court that Moat, a bodybuilder thought to have had a steroid addiction, had a "Jekyll and Hyde split personality".
After breaking off the relationship and starting a romance with karate instructor Chris, while her ex served 18 weeks in Durham prison, she told police investigators that she was "very worried, frightened, really scared" about what he'd do when he was released.
"I expected he would flip his lid and that there would be trouble, he'd come looking for Chris," she said. "I had told him the relationship was at an end but he would not have it. He would not take no for an answer."
On the day of his release, Moat posted a chilling message on Facebook which read: “Just got out of jail, I’ve lost everything… Watch and see what happens.”
Two days later he turned up at Samantha’s house with a shotgun, shooting Chris Brown dead outside and leaving Samantha fighting for her life after being shot through the window.
"Somehow my arm ended up in front of me as a block, and the doctors have said if my arm wasn't there, then I would have died,” she later said. “It took all the pressure and force from hitting my organs, really."
Traumatised and afraid
While she survived the horrific attack, Samantha was left with mental scars that left her suicidal.
She has since said that it was only the thought of daughter Chanel, who was three at the time, that kept her alive.
"I can't imagine how horrible it must be to lose your sight," she said of David Rathband, in 2013. "But I do have an inkling of how he must have felt. I know how low I have felt and there were lots of times when I thought about suicide. I just thought, 'I can't do this any more.'
"But then I've got my little girl, and I would look at her and remember why I had to live."
She also revealed that she suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and had flashbacks.
"All I have to do is shut my eyes and I'm there," she told the People.
"Chris is lying on the grass, dead. And Raoul is outside. He has a dead look on his eyes, like the lights are on but no one is there. That picture of him that night will stay with me forever. I have flashbacks all the time, and they wake me up in the middle of the night.”
She added that she is “scared of the dark” and forced to keep moving because Moat’s sick supporters blame her for the attack.
"There are hundreds of people out there who blame me. That's why we have moved three times in two years, why I'm now living with my parents, and why I'm always looking over my shoulder,” she said in 2013. “I think I’ll be doing that for the rest of my life."
Half-sister Kelly has hit out at ITV for screening the drama and says Samantha is still being trolled.
"We’re lucky our Sam survived," she told the Mirror. "ITV don’t realise the impact this will have on the people involved. It still gives me nightmares and I suffer PTSD. I'm so sick of hearing Raoul's name, and I'm so sick of him being on TV.
"My whole family and I all feel that it should be left in the past. So many people blame her for what happened on social media and troll her. This is something we can never forget but we would like to move on from it."
Daughter's depression
Moat’s 21-year-old daughter from a previous relationship has also spoken out about how her father’s crimes left her traumatised, and led to bullying at school.
“Being his flesh and blood sickens me at times, it’s hard to believe who I am,” Katelaine told the Mirror.
“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, from Newcastle, believed an ex-partner of her mum Caroline was her dad, until a relative revealed the truth when she was around seven.
Her family heard about Moat’s terrible crimes from a TV report and were temporarily put under police protection.
At school, she was relentlessly bullied and taunted by her fellow pupils due to her physical similarity to her biological father, and she now suffers from depression.
She has recently built up a relationship with two of Moat’s other children, the daughters of another of his abused exes.
Katelaine's mum Caroline Dodd, who was in a relationship with Moat for a year, also slammed the drama.
She told "This series will throw Raoul Moat back into the limelight and glorify his crimes.
"He would have loved it. He doesn't deserve that, or the admiration that comes with it.
"He was referred to as a 'hero' at the time and this will bring that back.
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"He should never be seen as a role model. He was a narcissist and a bully.
"This is not just a drama, it happened to real people who are still trying to heal."