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The hunt for Raoul Moat

Delscottio

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I presume the UK residents will be aware of the manhunt currently taking place in the North East for Mr. Moat.

But in brief what has happened is: the bloke was released from prison last thursday (early), Durham prison informed Northumbria Police that his ex girlfriend (Samantha Stobbart) was potentially in danger. On the Saturday night he went to her / her new fella's place shot and killed the new boyfriend, injured Samantha then proceeded to phone the police telling them he was going to shoot officers at random. 12 minutes after the call he shot an officer in the face, who fortunatley survived.

Jump forward a few days and the car he has been using turns up in Rothbury Northumberland. Interestingly the police has just released info that he had 2 hostages but they were located in Rothbury and arrested for conspiracy to commit murder! Moat is still on the run.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/10523318.stm

In amongst all that he found the time to write a 40 page letter to the police and pop round to one of his friends to get it handed in in person!. He also may have committed an armed robbery in Blyth.

Forgot to add he has declared war on the police and appears to want to do death by cop.

I don't know where to start with all the questions about the handling of the situation, hopefully he's found soon and no more injuries.
 
If this is genuine: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3042583/Confession-of-shotgun-killer-Raoul-Moat.html it is very disturbing. (Warning the story has a horrific picture of the policeman's injuries.)

I am also wondering why he was released early if the prison thought it appropriate to warn the police that he was still a potential danger to his girlfriend, my understanding is that such a concern would have been enough to refuse early release?

ETA: In the above I'm assuming the "early" release was not under an "end of custody licence" because I thought those were ended back in April of this year?
 
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All the reports I've read (from BBC) say he was released after serving his sentence for armed robbery - and don't say anything about early release.
 
America may overdo it but I firmly believe Europeans are too light on punishing criminals. A menace to society should be throughly evaluated before being released and if the perpetrator is still a danger he should continue to be incarcerated. Texas made the same mistake with Kenneth McDuff many years ago. He was released from prison for good behaviour after being convicted of murder and on his release he was later arrested and convicted of raping and killing at least ten young women.
 
Cainkane1 said:
America may overdo it but I firmly believe Europeans are too light on punishing criminals. A menace to society should be throughly evaluated before being released and if the perpetrator is still a danger he should continue to be incarcerated. Texas made the same mistake with Kenneth McDuff many years ago. He was released from prison for good behaviour after being convicted of murder and on his release he was later arrested and convicted of raping and killing at least ten young women.
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Which countries are you actually talking about?
 
The question is whether there was sufficient evidence to consider him a danger to society. The short prison term to which he was sentenced for his assault conviction would not seem to indicate that. The threats to his girlfriend towards the end of his sentence and which led the prison to warn the police you might argue there could have been a more proactive response.

ETA: the letter is pretty chilling.

I'd be interested if it correlates with what he was saying prior to release. I just wonder how many prisoners say 'I'm gonna do so-and-so when I get out' and to what degree is it bragging, to what degree to they really mean it.
 
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Darat said:
If this is genuine: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3042583/Confession-of-shotgun-killer-Raoul-Moat.html it is very disturbing. (Warning the story has a horrific picture of the policeman's injuries.)
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Based on comments made by the BBC refusing to show the image, I think it's probably genuine.

Darat said:
I am also wondering why he was released early if the prison thought it appropriate to warn the police that he was still a potential danger to his girlfriend, my understanding is that such a concern would have been enough to refuse early release?

ETA: In the above I'm assuming the "early" release was not under an "end of custody licence" because I thought those were ended back in April of this year?
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He wasn't released early - he finished his sentence. Also, he was released on Thursday but the police claim they got the warning on Friday afternoon - not a lot they could do without advance notice, but they seem to admit they could have had more in place to protect her by the weekend.

It does seem to me that there will need to be an inquiry about the prison handling of his release, but I also know how beaurocratic and difficult the prison systems of doing things is. We don't know if this was a formal warning, or a comment passed on to the police by a member of prison staff on their own time.

In any case, the guy is dangerous, and obsessed with his ex. He's got nothing to lose right now and has declared his intentions. Hopefully this will end without further loss of life - particularly to the police officers involved. I've been watching the tv coverage and the media is doing him a massive favour, if he has any access to any kind of tv feed right now.
 
commandlinegamer said:
I'd be interested if it correlates with what he was saying prior to release. I just wonder how many prisoners say 'I'm gonna do so-and-so when I get out' and to what degree is it bragging, to what degree to they really mean it.
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Prisoners often brag in various circumstances about various things. Often it is all bluff to keep themselves looking 'bigger' to other inmates. Often they are trying to intimidate or otherwise affect the prison officers themselves. Sometimes they are being honest in their desires but won't have the ability or gumption or desire to return inside to follow through when released. Sometimes they are blatently honest and follow through.

I don't believe our prison system has an effective method for reviewing these kinds of claims, and we don't seem to have much in the way of following up on ex-prisoners either, other than some parole style setups which mainly rely on the prisoner voluntarily assisting in the process.
 
chillzero said:
Based on comments made by the BBC refusing to show the image, I think it's probably genuine.
.
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Shotgun by the look of it; you can see the multiple small wounds from the pellets. Pretty horrific and high likelihood of eye injuries, but also bear in mind that head wounds bleed profusely and hence the real damage may be hidden in that shot.
 
OK. It gets a bit confusing.
He completed the sentence in that he was not given early release from it. However:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...e-gunman-ring-steel-thrown-rural-village.html
Moat, a muscular former nightclub bouncer with a history of violence, was released from Durham Prison on Thursday after completing half of an 18-week sentence for hitting his nineyearold daughter.

<snip>

Despite his history of domestic violence, Moat would not have been assessed before release from prison as he served less than 12 months in custody. The IPCC inquiry will focus on what information was passed between prison staff, probation officers and police. They will want to know whether appropriate resources were allocated to managing the risk Moat posed, based on what was known at the time.
The Ministry of Justice said because he was serving a short jail term his release was automatic and the timing determined by the sentence imposed by the court rather than any assessment of his fitness or threat he caused.
For offenders serving at least 12 months behind bars, more stringent conditions are imposed upon release from prison. These can include orders to live at a certain address, obey a curfew and attend programmes aimed at reintegrating them into society
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(bearing in mind the source, though)

That same articles states:
Intelligence picked up from within the jail was passed on to prison chiefs who alerted police on Friday afternoon to a potential threat posed by Moat.
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so I would guess that an officer overheard a conversation between inmates, or was approached by an inmate after Moat left, and passed the info through the appropriate sources.
 
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Facebook is playing a significant part in this whole situation.

It alerted him to his ex's activities triggering the weekend's assault, he used it to post a hit-list, and I spotted a few other mentions while I was speed reading other articles.

Adding to that the bbc helicopter footage of every move the police make, and I despair a little for the mis-uses of modern technologies.
 
The car he was apparently in was first seen around 9 lsst night parked up- I'd guess he is miles away from Rothbury by now. It wouldn't surprise me if he was in Scotland by now.
 
We had a radio warning this morning, because the south of Scotland is the next area to the north, but they said they didn't have any firm information he was headed this way.

Rolfe.
 
Darat said:
If this is genuine: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3042583/Confession-of-shotgun-killer-Raoul-Moat.html it is very disturbing. (Warning the story has a horrific picture of the policeman's injuries.)
Click to expand...


I'm actually very relieved to see that picture, because from the way the BBC were fussing about not showing it I had imagined something much worse. There's a fair bit of blood but little real injury to be seen. Architect is right, perhaps there's more severe underlying damage, but my guess from looking at that would be that he'll recover OK so long as he's bright and responsive - which by all acounts he is. There's no sign of anything that might require plastic surgery, for example.

Rolfe.
 
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