Raoul Moat death was suicide, inquest jury rules

Jury rules that officers who cornered gunman Raoul Moat and fired a Taser at him behaved properly during six-hour stand-off The fugitive gunman Raoul Moat took his own life after police fired an unapproved Taser at him, an inquest jury decided on Tuesday. The jury concluded that the armed officers had behaved properly during the six-hour stand-off with the 37-year-old former bouncer at Rothbury, Northumberland, in July 2010. Moat had been on the run for a week after shooting his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart, 22 and killing her new partner Chris Brown, 29. He went on to shoot and blind an unarmed traffic officer, PC David Rathband, after declaring “war” on police. The three-week inquest at Newcastle crown court had been told that Moat was hit by an experimental Taser round fired by marksmen who believed he was about to kill himself. The Taser had no effect, aand Moat shot himself in the head. The inquest was told that Moat had likened himself to King Kong while on the run . The jurors spent five hours considering their verdict . Summing up, the coroner David Mitford said the jury should consider either a verdict of suicide or an open verdict. He told them they had to answer five questions linked to whether police should have used the untested XRep X12 Taser that had not been approved by the Home Office. It had been the first time it had been used in the UK during a police operation. The coroner said the jury had to be “satisfied so you are sure” before returning a verdict of suicide. An Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) investigation into the operation found no evidence of misconduct by officers. The IPCC looked at the period from the sighting of Moat until his death, including strategy and tactics and the deployment of XRep Tasers. It concluded that there may be “some learning” for Northumbria Police from the investigation but there was no evidence any police officers had committed misconduct. One area the jury had to consider was whether the use of Tasers was appropriate. It found no evidence of improper behaviour by police. Moat’s brother Angus told the inquest that he should have been allowed to negotiate with his brother, but this request was turned down by police. He said Raoul responded to aggression and threat “but he also responded to kindness and friendship”. The inquest had been told that Moat has said he would “take the shoot-out” rather than go back to jail. He left a message on a dictating machine three or four days before he was cornered by police marksmen. In it, he described losing the only two people who mattered to him – his grandmother and his former girlfriend. Moat’s brother Angus told the inquest that Raoul had attempted suicide in 1999 and was treated in hospital for a drug overdose. While on the run, their mother had spoken to the press and said Raoul would be better off dead, but Angus Moat had disagreed. He said she had bipolar disorder and was “severely mentally ill and incapable of being a parent”. He said if he had been able to speak to his brother, he thought he would be able to change the way he was feeling and the way he would act. Raoul Moat Police Crime Helen Carter guardian.co.uk

Posted by on September 27, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.