The week-long hunt for fugitive Raoul Moat entered its final phase last night in an allotment alongside the town’s riverbank
FOR DAYS, Northumbrian police insisted that fugitive Raoul Moat was still near Rothbury, despite the doubts of many. It had seemed impossible he could have remained hidden for so long, given the extensive search.
Shortly before 7.45pm last night, however, running policemen urged locals to get inside their homes and journalists on the village green to get inside locked cars, as patrol cars, their lights flashing, rushed towards the river. In the melee, two police cars crashed into each other.
Within minutes, Northumbrian police issued a statement that “a man who fits the description of Raoul Thomas Moat has been located in the riverbank area in the vicinity of Rothbury. Police are currently negotiating.”
People rushed to homes near the centre of the drama, close to allotments that had been searched by police in recent days. Pauline Foreman cried in front of TV cameras, unable to get to her mother Kathleen, who was deeply upset. Her mother’s house had been burgled earlier in the week. Forensic tests showed, she claimed, that the burglar had been Moat.
Heavily armed officers screamed at locals and journalists to “Get inside, get inside, stay away from the windows and do it now”, as rumours spread that Moat was holding a gun to his head and threatening to take his own life. Most obeyed, though local youths gathered near camera crews at the police cordon. “He’s doing a ‘live’ in a few minutes,” said one youth, knowledgeable about media jargon after days of watching up close. On Whitton Bank Road, an inebriated older youth insisted on being let cross the bridge. “Go back, son, or you’ll get arrested,” said an officer patiently. “I won’t, man, I am going across that bridge.”
“No, you’re not, son”, replied the officer wearily. The youth retreated, eventually.
Marksmen circled the location, while trained negotiators rushed to the scene. Chris Robertson, who had come to visit his mother, told the BBC he had seen a man “who may have been Moat but I thought he was bigger” from 150 yards away.
In the Queen’s Head pub, a few locals milled outside with evening drinks. Inside, the TV screen showed a “soap”, rather than the news channels’ frenzied coverage. Rothbury, distressed to see its local economy brought to a halt, had long tired of Raoul Moat.
Nearby Robertson watched Moat’s final confrontation with police. He was, he said, pointing “what looked like a sawn-off shotgun to his neck, but I couldn’t be absolutely sure”.
Then, Moat moved out of view closer to the riverbank, and sat down while marksmen moved in closer, and unarmed negotiators closer still, as they tried to end the standoff peacefully.
Peter Adamson, another local ordered back into his house, also had Moat in his sight: “There are about 20 officers around him. They are lying down, kneeling, or behind Land Rovers. Moat has moved from lying down to sitting up, but he has the shotgun underneath his head.”
Having kept the public away, Northumbrian police worked to create an air of calm around Moat. “We can keep this going for hours. The intention is to get him to give himself up,” said one policeman. However, the era of 24-hour news soon intruded with the arrival of TV news helicopters, all adding to the tension in the air.
Police were furious. “Current media activity is compromising our operation in Rothbury. There is now a 10-mile air exclusion zone in place. The media are asked to take notice of this immediately. Media on the ground are also asked to stay away from current ongoing activity as their actions are also compromising the operation,” said an e-mail to journalists.
Shortly before 10pm, police brought in a close friend of Moat’s, Tony Laidler, to help negotiators calm him down.
Then former England footballer Paul Gascoigne arrived to offer his support for Moat. Talking to Metro Radio, Gascoigne appeared to suggest he had brought the wanted man a “can of lager, some chicken, a mobile phone and something to keep warm”. He added: “He is willing to give in now. I just want to give him some therapy and say ‘come on Moaty, it’s Gazza’.”
During Thursday night, helicopters had been scrambled after 75-year-old retired digger driver Bob Herdman peered out of his window before midnight and saw a man crouched in his neighbour’s garden. This was just yards away from last night’s drama, but the man had disappeared before police arrived.
On Friday a number of residents said they had seen Moat on the main street of the village shortly before 11am.
One family returned home on Wednesday after a day away to find a back window broken, food scraps on the kitchen floor and the microwave door open.
The mother and young child fled when they heard a noise coming from a bedroom.
“She ran out to her husband. And they saw the lights go out in their house,” said friend Jan Fisher. “They decided to spend a second night away. Her husband went back to get some things and found the house had been broken into again. Jumpers had been taken out of the cupboard. And you could see where he had been lying on the pillow.”