Dramatic last stand of one of Britain’s most-notorious killers is filmed for new ITV series

The extraordinary week-long manhunt for crazed gunman Raoul Moat – who shot his ex-girlfriend in the stomach and murdered her new lover before he killed himself after he was cornered by armed police during a tense standoff – has been recreated for a new ITV drama.

Actor Matt Stokoe, 33, was yesterday pictured sitting on the grass with a sawn-off shotgun playing Moat in his final moments before he took his own life.

Spurned former bouncer Moat, 37, had just been released from Durham Prison following an 18-week sentence for assault when he began his vindictive campaign of murder early on July 3, 2010 – first by killing ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart’s karate instructor lover Chris Brown, then shooting her in the stomach through a house window in Birtley, Gateshead.

He then declared war on police while on the run for murder and attempted murder, and blasted PC David Rathband in the face when he found the officer parked up in a patrol car on a roundabout in Newcastle. Rathband was blinded in the senseless attack and went on to take his own life in February 2012 because he couldn’t cope with his disability, a coroner ruled.

Moat took refuge with a pair of accomplices in Rothbury, Northumberland, but his actions triggered one of the nation’s most notorious manhunts.

Armed police were drafted in from around the country, survival expert Ray Mears was brought in to advise on where Moat could be fleeing, and RAF jets with heat-seeking cameras were deployed to canvas the north east of England in search for the killer.

The thug was eventually cornered by armed police before a six-hour stand-off began – during which footballer Paul Gascoigne famously turned up at the site of the police stand-off with a fishing rod and chicken dinner to try and talk ‘Moaty’ round. As negotiators tried to get Moat to put down his weapon, the crazed killer shot himself in the head.

Stokoe, famous for roles in the Channel 4 series Misfits, the BBC series Bodyguard and Sky’s Jamestown, has assumed the lead role of Moat, while Sally Messham (Doc Martin) and Josef Davies (Chernobyl) will play Moat’s ex-lover Stobbart and murder victim Brown.   

The drama will also star The A Word’s Lee Ingleby as Northumbria Police Officer Neil Adamson, who was among the main police officers searching for Moat while he evaded capture. 

Sonya Cassidy (The Last Kingdom) and Vineeta Rishi (Holby City) have also been announced as cast members. It is not clear if Gascoigne will feature in the show. 

Left, Raoul Moat, who was 37 at the time of a shooting spree in 2010. Right, Matt Stokoe, who will play him in a new drama

Raoul Moat holds a shotgun to his head after being confronted by armed police in Rothbury

Sitting on the grass with a sawn-off shotgun, actor Matt Stokoe, 33, was yesterday pictured playing the killer Raoul Moat in his final moments before he took his own life

The ITV drama, which will tell the story of one of the most notorious manhunts in the UK, filmed the gripping scenes in Yorkshire with Stokoe in the lead role. Actors posing as police officers are pictured during filming this week

Police pictured in July 2010, during their confrontation with fugitive Raoul Moat

Stokoe, the partner of actress Sophie Rundle, was spotted holding a replica sawn off shotgun to mimic the standoff

Moat, lying down, holds a shotgun to his head as armed police look on

Lee Ingleby is pictured filming the scene of the notorious standoff from 2010 for the ITV drama

Stokoe is pictured behind the scenes of a new ITV drama about the horrific shooting spree in 2010

Stokoe is pictured sitting on the grass on the left as armed police try to persuade him to drop his weapon

The series has been titled ‘The Hunt for Raoul Moat’, though a release date is yet to be confirmed.  

Born in 1973, Moat was bought up by his grandmother in Newcastle’s deprived West End – just a few doors down from his parents, Josephine and stepfather Brian Healey.

Moat was widely regarded as a man with an explosive temper; a muscle-bound bodybuilder addicted to steroids and anti-depressants who could flip at a moment’s notice. Samantha told Newcastle Crown Court in 2011 after the shooting spree that Moat had a ‘Jekyll and Hyde split personality’, and was prone towards violent behaviour.

At the time of his death Moat had been on the run for a week after being released from Durham prison following an 18-week sentence for assault.

Just two days after his release the 37-year-old shot dead Chris Brown and wounded his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart on July 3. Just hours later he left PC David Rathband blind, he took his own life two years later.

Just days before the stand off with police, officers released new images of Moat and urged the public to stay away from him. Pictures were also released by police showing the equipment Moat was using to hide in his woodland lair.

On Friday 9 July officers located three of Moat’s mobile phones. One, used to make the two 999 calls to police before and after PC David Rathband was shot. Moat was later cornered into a riverbank and had a shot gun to his head.

Moat’s friend Tony Laidler was escorted into the police cordon and food and water items were also bought in as the stand off continued.

In the early hours of Saturday morning a gunshot was heard, Moat shot himself and no shots were fired by police. He was taken to hospital for treatment but died just hours later.

In a bizarre twist to the police stand-off with the killer in Rothbury, which was widely reported at the time, former England footballer Paul Gascoigne showed up to try to talk Moat down.

Speaking in the years following the manhunt, Gascoigne told the Mirror: ‘I thought that I could take Raoul Moat fishing because he was near a river. I told the taxi driver ‘head for the airport’ and then when we got to Newcastle airport I said ‘head for Rothbury’.

‘The taxi driver said ‘you are not going where I think you are going?’ And I said ‘yes I am’.’

He said he went on to tell the taxi driver that he could ‘save Moat’ because he had been through so much himself during his struggles with addiction and alcoholism. When Gascoigne got out of the taxi he said he headed straight for the field where Moat was surrounded by police.

He asked police ‘where’s Moaty’, and one officer asked if he knew him personally, to which Gascoigne denied. He said rumours then started to circulate as to how he knew Moat with some saying they had been friends.

They had never met, but as the situation around Moat intensified, Gascoigne found himself on TV screens and linked with the chain of events ever since.

In the years since, several members of Moat’s family have expressed the pain they still feel as a result of their son’s actions and the abuse they are subject to.

Moat’s ex-girlfriend Samantha was rushed to Queen Elizabeth hospital in Gateshead, where she was left fighting for her life, after she was shot.

On July 5, Samantha was declared to no longer be in a critical condition following the attack, and left hospital on July 17. That same day she issued a direct appeal to Moat, who had gone on the run, and said: ‘Please give yourself up. If you still loved me and our baby you would not be doing this.’

Miss Stobbart told a court in 2011 that the crazed gunman ‘had a Jekyll and Hyde split personality’ as she told of the horrifying moment the killer attacked her and her lover. 

Moat had just shot her karate instructor boyfriend Chris Brown in the neck and chest before ‘calmly executing’ him with a final shot to the head, a trial heard.

Miss Stobbart wept as she told a jury at Newcastle Crown Court how Moat ‘just appeared’ and started shooting on July 3 last year.

‘Chris went down to the grass and I followed him. I remember Raoul was shouting. I don’t know what. Shouting. He pointed the gun at my legs and I ran into the house,’ she said.

‘I could not see anybody. I was panicking because my daughter was upstairs and I was running about the house looking for the keys and I did not know what they looked like.

‘I heard two shots. When I looked out the window it was done. I didn’t see Raoul come towards the house, I was concentrating on Chris. I just heard shouting and before I knew it I got shot.’

Moat was widely regarded as a man with an explosive temper; a muscle-bound bodybuilder addicted to steroids and anti-depressants who could flip at a moment’s notice 

Sally Messham, pictured right, has signed on to play Moat’s ex-lover Samantha Stobbart, who sustained severe injuries after being shot in the stomach by the crazed gunman

PC David Rathband, 44, a policeman who was left blind when Raoul Moat shot him in 2010, was found hanged in his home in Blyth, Northumberland, in 2012 

Pictured left to right: Stepfather Brian Healey, mother Josephine Healey, Raoul Moat, aged 13, and brother Angus Moat on Josephine Moat and Brian Healey’s wedding day in 1986

Moat’s daughter Katelaine Fitzpatrick (pictured in 2010 with her mother), said in 2020: ‘I’m so sorry to the people he has hurt’

She later told the News of The World of the terrifying moment that Moat appeared at the window and started to shoot. 

‘There was nothing I could do against a madman with a gun,’ she said.

‘I had to get back to the house to make sure my baby daughter Chanel was safe. I saw the sparks flying off Raoul’s gun as he shot me. Then I was on the floor with blood pumping out everywhere.’ She added that ‘there was no emotion’ in Moat’s eyes as he carried out the attack.

Speaking out for the first time in 2020 – a decade on from her father’s killing spree –  Katelaine Fitzpatrick told The Mirror about her lasting feelings of shame, disgust and abandonment.

‘I’m so sorry to the people he has hurt. If I had the chance to meet the victims and their families and say I’m so sorry for what my dad did, and show that I care, I would,’ Katelaine, who was 11 at the time of her father’s rampage, said. 

‘Being his flesh and blood sickens me at times, it’s hard to believe who I am. I can’t believe I come from that man. I’m so glad I didn’t know him, and that I became the person I am today despite all I have been through,’ Katelaine added. 

Moat had always turned down opportunities to meet his daughter and had never spoken to her prior to the attacks. Katelaine also said she became a victim during her school years as a result of other children bullying her with cruel taunts because of Moat’s actions.

Just months prior to Katelaine’s first-ever interview, Moat’s mother Josephine Healey gave her first statement to the press.

‘He is not my son,’ Healey told the Mirror in April 2020.

She added that the incident still caused ‘a lot of trouble for me’ and said abusive messages are posted through her letterbox to this day. 

At the time of Moat’s standoff with officers, when he threatened to kill any policeman who crossed his path, Mrs Healey spoke at length about her son’s dramatic change. 

She said her gentle son disappeared at the age of 19, replaced by a snarling man who hated everything – and everyone. 

He returned to her home after a lengthy absence in 2007 and, standing on the doorstep, made a gun gesture with his fingers before threatening to kill her.

‘Why would he do that?’ she asked on the penultimate day of Moat’s standoff. ‘It was like he was not my real son.’ 

‘He now has a totally different character, attitude and manner,’ she added.  ‘Every last detail.’