HOLED up in a safe house with her terrified mum, 11-year-old Katelaine watched wide-eyed as a standoff between the police and her dad, killer Raoul Moat, played out on live TV.
The hulking 6ft 3in bodybuilder had already shot his ex-partner, her boyfriend and policeman David Rathband in a violent rampage before going on the run in remote woods in Northumberland for a week.
Raoul Moat killed his love rival and wounded two others in a two-day shooting spree[/caption]
Moat shot and hospitalised his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart[/caption]
Chris Brown, Samantha Stobbart’s boyfriend, was shot and killed by Moat during his rampage[/caption]
Now Katelaine’s family watched in horror as police Tasered the brute – and heard a gunshot ring out.
The terrifying ordeal for Katelaine and her mum Caroline began on 3 July 2010, just two days after he was released from prison.
Incensed that his girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart had dumped him and wanted to move on with her new partner, Chris Brown, Moat arrived at her house in Birtley, Northumberland.
Hunkered down outside an open window, holding a sawn-off shotgun, he listened to the pair talking inside where, he says, they were mocking him.
When karate instructor Brown went out to confront him, Moat shot him dead. Leaning through the window he fired at Samantha, hitting her in her raised arm and in the abdomen before making his escape.
The following day Raoul, who had a pathological hatred of police, came across PC David Rathband in his car near East Denton, and fired at him through the window, blinding him. Miraculously, he survived.
Moat then made threatening phone calls to police, promising to kill further officers.
With former girlfriends, Samantha’s family and police all wondering if they would be next to die at his hands, the gunman went on the run, sparking one of the biggest manhunts in British history.
Katelaine, along with Samantha’s sister Kelly, Moat’s dad Peter and the gunman’s closest friends, are amongst those who talk about the extraordinary saga that gripped the nation in the Prime Video documentary, Raoul Moat: Inside the Mind of a Killer.
“My mother and father met before he was in a relationship with Samantha,” says Katelaine, Moat’s eldest daughter.
Although she had been kept away from him by her mother Caroline, Katelaine was aware of his reputation and temper.
“I grew up wanting to know him, but he never reached out,” she says. “My mum used to refer to my dad as Jekyll and Hyde.
“He did have a good side, a very professional side. And the Hyde was the monster, the big brute, the controlling narcissist.
He did have a good side, a very professional side. And the Hyde was the monster, the big brute, the controlling narcissist
Katelaine
“After my father found out that my mum was pregnant, he arranged for people to attack my mum because she refused to have an abortion. I know a friend was there and the friend protected my mum and myself.
“There was days where I was walking through Kenton as a child with some friends, and a few times with my mum and I remember seeing Raoul. My mum just said, ‘Put your head down and walk away.’”
Raoul Moat was a panel beater, bouncer and tree surgeon from Newcastle who had built up his body at the same time as his imposing reputation.
Tony Laidler, Moat’s friend from childhood, speaks in a new documentary[/caption]
Bruce Singh was another close friend of Moat’s[/caption]
Tony Laidler, his friend from childhood, remembers: “I was his friend from about the age of three or four and around that time he was just skinny, with big bright ginger hair all brushed back and fluffed up.
“He was a nice, happy kid who lived with his gran and his mam was never there. He would have probably been about ten years old when his mam came back, but he said he was always getting bullied by the stepdad. Happiness seemed to go downhill from then.
“Raoul was always looking for his dad, asking his mam who it was, but she would never tell him.”
Violent rampage
Sam was shot in the stomach[/caption]
A few days before he came out of prison for assaulting a nine-year-old relative, he and Samantha had argued on the phone with Sam telling him that she didn’t want to see him as she had a new boyfriend.
Moat replied: “I cannot have you out of my life. If you really hurt me with this I’ll end up going for him, and I don’t want to.” Trying to protect herself from him, she lied that Chris Brown was a police officer, which further incensed him.
Another close friend of Moat’s, Bruce Singh, says: “It would have been rage. He had made a reputation for himself within the city. He had a huge ego and a hatred for the police, which had been ongoing for a number of years.
“Now he’s lost the house that he lives in. The business is gone, and she’s telling him she’s met a copper. He’s thinking, ‘Someone’s got to pay.’”
PC Rathband struggled to cope with his blindness[/caption]
The brave officer was later found hanged in his Blyth home[/caption]
“On the day of the rampage, my mum was worried that he would work his way through people to attack,” says Katelaine. “She felt like she could be targeted. And if she was a target, I was a target.”
Katelaine and her mum were rushed to a safe house by police for their protection.
Moat camped out near a farm on the outskirts of Rothbury and on 9 July a member of the public spotted him by a river bank and contacted police.
The former home of Moat in Newcastle[/caption]
Armed officers swarmed in and confronted the killer, telling him to put down his weapon.
Katelaine recalls watching the stand-off with wide-eyed astonishment as it played out on live television.
“It had been a normal day,” she says. “I was playing out, and it wasn’t until an aunty had rang and said, you need to put the news on, that things changed.
“I was sat with my family watching the telly in the living room. I was very anxious. I barely spoke to anybody.”
‘Chicken, a fishing rod and four cans of lager’
Moat was camping the woods near Rothbury[/caption]
Armed police can be seen in the woods after he was spotted by a member of the public[/caption]
As this extraordinary drama played out for the nation, former England footballer Paul Gascoigne bizarrely turned up, wearing a dressing gown and carrying some chicken, a fishing rod and four cans of lager, claiming to be friends with Moat and wanting to pass the items onto him.
He was ushered away by armed police. Gazza later explained that he had been at his most vulnerable in a gruelling battle with alcohol addiction.
After nearly six hours of negotiation, police fired a Taser stun gun at Moat, who stumbled. Then, turning his shotgun to his head, Moat shot and killed himself.
I remember hearing that gunshot and everybody in the room just looked at me
Katelaine
“I remember hearing that gunshot and everybody in the room just looked at me,” says Katelaine, now 26.
“All the adults in the room just rushed around me, cuddled me, and they’re like, ‘I hope you’re okay.’ But it wasn’t until later that I started feeling loss and hurt.”
Moat’s father, Peter, was also watching the events on TV. He had never known his son after his girlfriend, Josie became pregnant with him and told Peter that she no longer wanted him in her life.
I don’t think Raoul had a template as to how a man should be. My template was my father. I think he felt unloved and went through life with this weighing on him
Peter
“I went to see a solicitor and asked him what rights I had to seeing my son and I was told I didn’t have any as I wasn’t married to her,” he says.
“I talked to my father about it he said that if I approached Raoul before he was ready, I could lose him forever. He added, ‘He will come to you when the time is right.’ But I deeply regret that I didn’t reach out.
“I don’t think Raoul had a template as to how a man should be. My template was my father. I think he felt unloved and went through life with this weighing on him.”
Now, Raoul had come back into his life in the most dramatic of ways.
Former footballer Paul Gascoigne bizarrely turned up with food and beer[/caption]
Moat’s father, Peter also watched the events on TV[/caption]
Pictured (From left to right) Raoul Moat’s brother Angus Moat, best friend Anthony Wright and father Peter Blake at Moat’s inquest[/caption]
“I was listening to the news and I heard three words – Raoul Thomas Moat. And I thought, ‘Oh, my God, that’s him. The son that I’d lost, I’d suddenly found. The police asked anybody with any information to contact them and I rang the number.
“I said that I needed to be there because he was not going to surrender to them but he could to his father but they said that they were going to deal with it in another way. I felt exactly as I did in 1972 and ‘73. Completely powerless.”
Samantha was hospitalised and incredibly survived. David Rathband remained in hospital for nearly three weeks and was permanently blinded, Tragically, he took his own life on 29 February 2012.
“I can’t do anything now for Raoul,” says Peter. “But I think I can bring comfort to his children.”
Moat has children from other relationships as well as a daughter with Samantha, who was three at the time of the shootings.
“Peter’s had a very positive impact on my life,” says Katelaine. “He just stepped forward and was like, ‘I’m Raoul’s father.’ Because he never had a relationship with his own son we’ve built our own bridges together.
“I will never forgive what my dad did. It made me think very negatively about myself for a very long time. All I can see is that moment when he was lying there surrounded by police.
“It just feels like a dream. It’s only been more recently that I look in the mirror and I respect who I am.”
Raoul Moat: Inside the Mind of a Killer airs on 12 October on Prime Video
