PC Rathband the policeman blinded by Raoul Moat found dead at home.

[carernotasaint]

At the moment it is a suspected suicide but the news was only released 20 mins ago so they cant be 100% sure.

I gasped when I heard this on the news this morning. I've felt really sad all day. Poor man, and what a tragic end to that horrible story.

i do the same job and both i and my colleagues predicted this a while ago, i cant imagine coming back from something that robbed him of his job, wife, identity and happiness. I wonder how much support he actually got in reality. I have learned very very quickly that in this job, the number you wear on your arm makes you exactly that - a number. It is truly tragic and i think it was very predictable. I hope he finds peace now. RIP David.

article here on the lack of support for officers injured in the line of duty

It made me really angry when I heard it. His kids have already been through so much :( The shooting, the long 'recovery' period, his determination to get back to work at all costs, the break down of their parents marriage and now this... They seem such lovely kids - it's so unfair. I honestly just don't see how, no matter how shit things were, he could do this to his kids. Those photos of him on holiday and him coming home to tell his kids... how, just how the hell do you do that?

I had a feeling when they did the documentary that the marriage wouldn't make it - but I thought he would cope well enough to stick around for his kids.

Bastarding moat.

Vicar He talked about that in the documentary he made - I was disgusted with the lack of support he received from the force & impressed with his intention to set up independant funding for them.

How terribly sad.Poor man :( RIP

It made me so sad when I heard it. That poor man, what he went through, that poor family. My heart goes out to them.

We have no idea why their marriage broke down

Actually, we do have some idea, as it as been reported before (some directly from him on Twitter). But yes, I have no compunction in blaming the whole sorry mess on Moat.

The catalyst for all of this was Raoul Moat. He wrecked a lot of lives.

And when he tweeted about his marriage breakdown his wife tweeted that his tweet was incorrect and that he had walked out and was refusing to come home.

Not that it makes any difference now but just wanted to point out we don't know what happened so pointless speculating. RIP.

punge do you really know that?
I'd like to think that I'd stay with DH, but couldn't, hand on heart say 100%.

I don't think you can or should judge his wife in this situation. Walk a mile in her shoes and all that...

The day Moat shot him was the day that family's lives were changed forever. There really is only one person to blame here and that is Moat.

I was very sorry to hear of PC Rathband's death.

punge - really? shortly before they split up he was charged with assault

i hope moat in burning in hell

I think there's a difference between leaving someone because of what has happened to them, and leaving someone because of how what has happened to them has affected your lives/relationships.

I knew someone who had been blinded in a bomb explosion. He was engaged at the time and two days after it happened his fiance came to the hospital and told him that she didn't want to be with someone who was blind and she ended the relationship. I judge someone who could do that.

However, it sounds here as if PC Rathband was in a very bad place mentally, because of the loss of his job, his sight, everything that that involved and the changes that he had to make to his life, and coming to terms with the loss of his job which I've read was essentially his life. Any kind of mental illness puts huge strain on a relationship, and let's be honest, mental illness is selfish in that those who are mentally ill are often not able to see the bigger picture or the effect their illness is having on others. Everyone has a breaking point, and there is no law that says you have to stand by someone no matter how badly they treat you, just because that someone suddenly has become disabled.

And I think all this living out your life and your marital break-up on twitter is just rather distasteful really - here people are speculating about what did and didn't happen based on someone's tweets. really...

It is so very sad for all concerned.

"ripishere, I know what you mean - I was talking about this to DH... I said that in such circumstances it would be ideal if you could give a few years to
really get them on their feet if they've been, for example, shot in the face, blinded, and lost their job. If you married them, you owe them that, even
if they are perhaps being difficult - ie struggling to come to terms with their new life... maybe after a couple of years when the person has adjusted
they might understand. Before that, I'd feel 'oh, a burded now am I? Not so 'high status'? Oh I see...bye then..' I'd certainly feel betrayed if I was
the blind police-woman and my husband didn't do his best to get me through such a terrible life-change."

But we don't know anything about them do we? We don't know what their marriage was like before all this happened, there's no knowing that they were happily married before this and that she might in fact have stayed purely because she wanted to help him through it, iyswim. Equally there's no knowing just how intolerable he might have been. He asalted her once that we know of, how much of that should someone have to put up with in the name of duty?

"I feel she did not do her duty for her poor husband, and his death may have been avoided if she had been a little more selfless. Just my opinion - I don't
really know either of them, but I do think this part of the story is being skirted over, and is quite important." I think the why's and wherefores of this marriage break-up is no-one's business actually.

In fact I think that perhaps if PC Rathband's life hadn't been so incredibly public, perhaps this might have been avoided also. From the moment he was shot by Moat he was thrust into the public eye. "Oh so brave/courageous/coming to terms with his dissability/not being beaten." Setting up his charity and being awarded this and that bravery award. He couldn't fall apart because there was too much expectation on him not to. If he had that too would have played out in public in the media. Perhaps if he hadn't been thrust into the public eye like that with the expectation of coping oh so well with what had happened he may have been able to express how he was really feeling to those that cared about him and been able to get proper help without it coming to this.

My opinion is it is not my business to speculate on the state of their marriage, either before or after the shooting.
I'll go now and suggest, respectully, that no more speculation happens.
These boards are very public.

i think its pointless to blame his wife. This was so predictable, and imo, i could have been dealt with much earlier with the right support. PC Rathband had to set up a charity to help others like him. Where is the government support? we work for the crown, we face risks that other people do not face, and we do it every day of our working life, and yet, when it goes wrong, we are left to fend for ourselves.

I have friends who do not believe that i do the same job as my male colleagues!

I dont believe there was any real chance of PC Rathband ever going back to work as a PC, in any capacity. I know he hung on to the thought that he would go back and finish that last shift, but then what? his entire life was gone, and it sickens me that there are still those out there who hail Moat as some kind of anti-hero.

Agree wannabe. Though I didn't know he assaulted her.

so very sad :(. my thoughts go out to all his family he looked so relaxed in the pics down under .