The Hunt for Raoul Moat - ITV sunday 9pm (or 10pm +1) Sunday 16 April 2023

[IwantToRetire]

The first of a three-part crime drama, based on real events. Samantha Stobbart's fears about the release of her violent ex-boyfriend Raoul Moat from prison become justified.

https://www.itv.com/watch/the-hunt-for-raoul-moat/10a0326/10a0326a0001

(Cant see a thread on this, so thought I would start one)

There are also people that blame Kath Rathband for leaving David Some of the comments i saw last night were disgusting

I used to live in Rothbury, it's probably the most excitement the place ever had!

David Rathband was known to be a complete c**t by his colleagues in Northumbria police
And to his wife!

Yeah she was so devastated she sold her story to the news of the world from her hospital bed! She also never went to chris's funeral!

Chris Brown’s family asked/told her not to attend.

@BenCoopersSupportWren she never even sent flowers or a message! Like I said previously she sold her story for ££££ from her hospital bed!

Why was she asked not to attend?

@StellaGibson2022 because they blame her for saying that chris was a police officer while knowing that moat hated the police and then shamelessly selling her story to the media.

According to BBC news reports of the time, because they were angry that she’d lied to Moat about seeing a police officer. I presume they thought Moat may not have gone after Chris otherwise.

I think it's been a pretty poor programme. It's all a bit disjointed and doesn't capture the essence of the important bits- how bonkers Moat was, the fear that existed in communities, the shock on Tyneside. It's a bit sensationalist over the smaller things- the two men on the road in Rothbury for example, and the programme makers are obsessed with the idiots who championed and praised Moat, to the point where it feels almost like it's a bit of determination to show they don't agree with those people (who play no real role in the story).
The acting is poor, particularly whoever is playing Moat, who looks nothing like him and is physically much less imposing and less of a nutter. Everything is a bit distant/removed from the emotions and psychology of the events. Accents are awful.

I haven't felt at all moved by it, quite detached from it. DH and I had just got togther and I remember it all really clearly but this programme doesn't capture or reflect on it effectively.

Lots of it is inaccurate and completely made up, although they do state that some of it is fictional.

Prepared to be shit down in flames for this but I think it's true. Moat, his family, his friends, Stobbart and her family, were part of the group in society that are lawless, live on the edges, live with violence, drugs and drinking as part of their everyday lives. He was mad. She made appalling choices in life and continued to do so afterwards.

The programme is part of an obsession that exists in showing the lives of people who live like this- Rain Dogs, lots of True Crime stuff, Waterloo Rd, 24 Hours in Police Custody etc. I tend to think there should be less focus on it and more on showing what we get right and want to see more of in our society.

I remember posting on the thread on here while it was all going on!

Wasn't she only 22 at the time, and I'm guessing she probably didn't have very much money. I don't think there's many people who in her situation wouldn't have sold their story.

Either way, she doesn't deserve the vitriol aimed at her.

I agree. She was only 16 when Moat, who was in his 30s, got his hooks into her and 19 when she gave birth to their daughter. She wasn’t highly educated and so far as she knew at the time, she’d lost almost everything - her boyfriend, her health, potentially her job, any financial contribution Moat may have been making for his daughter. Plus she was being vilified on social media; I think many people in her position would have taken the opportunity to get their side of the story across and take some of the press’s money in the process.

I don’t understand why they spent so long talking to him and reasoning at the end. He was a highly dangerous man who had admitted what he had done and what he planned to do …. why didn’t the police shoot him in the legs or arms or somewhere then disarm him. I don’t mean kill him but come on …. all night 🤷🏼‍♀️

Even trained marksmen will struggle to hit a limb. Shooting to wound is much more difficult than it sounds, firearms training is to aim for the greatest area of mass. In this case, with the intensity of the media glare and the three-ring-circus the whole thing had become, would you want to be the officer who either gave the order or fired the shot, got it slightly wrong and killed him? (And I believe that if the police ever did give a deliberate order to shoot to wound and the person was then left disabled as a result of the gunshot injury, they’d be entitled under law to sue for damages, regardless of their criminal status.)

The police wanted to bring him in alive because they wanted him to face the justice system. The best chance of that was by negotiating. But they were negotiating with someone who’d already decided he had nothing left to live for.

That makes sense, thank you.

I am glad he died. He would have been locked up for life but revelling in notoriety when this was all brought up again by things such as this program. Gone and forgotten is the best place for him.

I grew up in Gateshead area, and was visiting my parents when this happened. I remember us driving past the roundabout where David Rathband was shot. There was a police officer on the roundabout, I can't remember if it was before or after though. My son was 5 years old and heard it on the news and was really worried that night going to sleep.

I remember when it happened, feel so sorry for the boyfriend and his family! Little did he know what he was getting mixed up in as Moat was a total psycho! After watching last night he wouldn't have been shot and killed she had not old Moat that he was a policeman...that upped the ante somewhat! I get why she said that but it cost this guy his life in the most horrific circumstances, she knew first hand what a psycho he was that this could push him over the edge rather than deter Moat....it's horrific.

Police missed a chance as the prison alert wasn't actioned ....

I completely agree! Although i do have to say that last night's episode contained a lot more fiction than the first one which was much closer to the facts.

It was the Denton Burn A1/A69 roundabout, wasn't it? There was often a police car parked on there (I had relatives in both the Fenham and Hexham areas so used to drive that way a lot in one direction or another).

I think it's easy to say Chris Brown would still be alive if Samantha Stobbart hadn't lied, but no one can know for sure, can they? Moat's pre-existing hatred of police may have made the difference but equally he was a violent, controlling, possessive man who refused to accept the relationship was over and was prepared to commit murder. It's possible that Moat would have had it in for whoever his ex started seeing whether he believed them to be police or not. I think it's David Rathband and his family who particularly suffered the consequences of Stobbart's lie, as that seemed to be the catalyst for his random shooting.

@BenCoopersSupportWren I'm simply going by what was portrayed on the programme last night.....that is they way it is being told. Who knows what he could have done he was a highly dangerous individual and she knew that whereas the boyfriend was oblivious and had no idea what Moat was like etc.