16 April 2023 , 17:00
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The Hunt for Raoul Moat, a series set to premiere this evening, has already sparked controversary and backlash ahead of airing.
The ITV drama will run over consecutive nights, wrapping up on Tuesday, April 18, before a documentary about Moat airs the following night.
Inspector George Gently star Lee Ingleby and former Vera actress Sonya Cassidy take on lead roles for the dramatised retelling of the events that shocked the country over a decade ago.
But the series has already been heavily criticised, with Moat's daughter saying the drama will bring back the horror of her father's crimes and recalling how she was badly bullied after Moat killed one person and injured in the summer of 2010.
The widow of David Rathband, the police officer Moat blinded after shooting him in the face, has also slammed the ITV series, which sees her late husband who took his own life in 2012 portrayed on screen by actor Dan Skinner.
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In the early hours of July 3, 2010, 37-year-old Moat had been out of Durham Prison for two days when he arrived at the home of his 22-year-old ex-girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart.
Police issue photograph of Raoul Moat (Daily Mirror)Moat had been in prison after serving an 18-week sentence for assaulting a nine-year-old relative.
He had not been convicted of any crimes before this but had been charged for seven different offences and arrested twelve times throughout his life.
A former bouncer, tree surgeon and bodybuilder, Moat was a large man at 6 ft 3 in and was known to have a bad temper.
Moat had been raised by his grandmother after as his mother spent a great deal of time in mental hospitals due to her bipolar disorder.
He had three children in total over his life, including his daughter with Stobbart.
Actor Matt Stokoe plays gunman Moat in the ITV drama (ITV STUDIOS)The pair had split and while Moat was in Durham Prison, Stobbart claimed that she had entered into an affair with a police officer to keep him away from her.
Having blamed the police for his life falling apart previously, Moat felt huge anger towards them.
When arriving at a house in Birtley where Stobbart was staying, Moat listened near the window whilst holding a sawn-off shotgun.
Stobbart was in a new relationship with a karate instructor named Chris Brown, and Moat later claimed he heard the pair mocking him.
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Murder victim Chris Brown (Daily Mirror)Brown went on to leave the house to confront Moat, prompting the latter to shoot him with the shotgun, killing Brown.
Inside the house, Stobbart's mother tried to call the police, prompting Moat to shoot into the house and injure Stobbart herself, striking her in the arm and abdomen.
Stobbart was later taken to hospital and received life-saving surgery.
The following day after he had called the police to warn them what he was about to do, Moat gunned down Police Constable David Rathband as he sat in his patrol car on a roundabout in East Denton.
It appeared to be a random attack as Moat said he would target any police officer in his wake, but Rathband had previously crossed paths with him when he confiscated Moat's van.
Calling the police after, Moat told them what he had done and they failed to convince him to hand himself in for the sake of his children.
David Rathband, who was shot by fugitive Raoul Moat (PA)Having been found, Rathband was rushed to hospital in critical condition, having sustained head and upper body injuries.
Rathband's widow Kath has slammed the ITV drama about the man who shot her late husband, saying: "We have no intention of watching it, but it still has an impact as it’s on social media, on newsfeed, it’s everywhere again.
"The kids are proud to be their dad’s children, but it can be hard for them because they carry his surname. They both have close circles of friends who are fully aware of what happened."
Moat was on the run and attempting to evade authorities, but he was sighted in Seaton Delaval as part of an armed robbery before he made his way to Rothbury.
Armed vehicles, helicopters, dogs, a Royal Air Force aircraft and 160 armed officers were unleashed to find and stop Moat.
Believed to be a threat to the wider public, Rothbury schools received armed guards and police uncovered campsites and potential hiding places, with road checks also being placed around the area for people arriving and leaving.
Moat during a stand-off with police in Rothbury, Northumberland in July 2010 (PA)Samantha Stobbart's father Paul issued a video appeal asking Moat to hand himself in, while Northumbria Police offered a £10,000 reward to the public if they helped Moat be tracked down.
On July 9, police warned residents of the Rothbury to stay inside while a major security operation was underway.
Moat had been surrounded by police on the bank of the River Coquet and was pointing a sawn-off shotgun to his neck.
Police sent in food and drink and used Moat's best friend Tony Laidler to try and persuade Moat to surrender.
Meanwhile, former professional footballer Paul Gascoigne arrived at the scene in a dressing gown and tried to get Moat to stand down and surrender with "chicken and lager", but was ultimately turned away by police.
Moat fired the gun on his own head and police swarmed on him to get him to hospital in an ambulance.
Police escort and ambulance rush to Newcastles General Hospital with Moat after he shot himself in the headShortly after arriving at Newcastle General hospital, Moat was pronounced dead.
An inquest later found that police had fired two tazer guns at Moat to prevent his suicide but it was unknown whether this happened before or after he had shot himself.
His death was officially ruled as a suicide by an inquest jury.
In 2011, Moat's friend Karl Ness and his friend Qhurum Awan were convicted for aiding in Moat's crimes.
Ness received three concurrent life sentences totalling a minimum of 40 years in prison for murder, conspiracy to murder and attempted murder.
Qhuram Awan (left) and Karl Ness were convicted after Moat's death (PA)He had been with Moat on the night of Brown's murder and his attack on Stobbart, waiting outside as it happened.
Awan received two sentences for conspiracy to murder and attempted murder, totalling at least 20 years in prison.
He had driven Moat around in his car while he hunted for police officers to kill, leading to the injuries sustained by PC Rathband, who was left permanently blind.
They both also received seven years for robbery and Ness also got five years for a firearm offence, as he had helped Moat get the shotguns to track down Brown and Stobbart with.
Rathband was in court to see Ness and Awan sent down for their crimes (AFP/Getty Images)After Ness and Awan were sentenced, PC Rathband said: "Both Ness and Awan will be very old people before they are released, or considered for release, and long may they stay there," he said.
"These two individuals, along with the other coward that wasn't man enough to stay here, have taken my job away from me in the fact that I am now blinded for the rest of my life."
After struggling to adjust to his drastically altered life as a result of his injuries, PC Rathband took his own life by hanging in February 2012.
Having been due to carry the Olympic torch later that summer, Rathband's daughter Mia carried the torch with a blindfold in tribute to her late father.
Samantha Stobbart, who was shot by her ex-boyfriend Raoul MoatSamantha Stobbart survived and recovered from her injuries but remained haunted by what happened, revealing to The People in 2012 that she had considered suicide herself when she heard the news of PC Rathband's death, which deeply affected her.
She went on to add: "I know what happened will haunt me forever, and I’ll never forget it 100 per cent. But now I'm just trying to move on.
"If I start putting myself in the position of a victim then Raoul has won, and I don’t want to let him win any more.
"I'm going to get through this and not let him hurt me any more."
Samantha's sister Kelly Stobbart, 40, has criticied the new drama about Moat and his actions, claiming ITV "doesn't understand the impact" its series will have on people involved.
Moat's daughter was also impacted by her father's crimes and doesn't welcome the ITV series inspired by his gun rampage.
Lee Ingelby as Neil Adamson in ITV's The Hunt for Raoul Moat (ITV STUDIOS)Katelaine Fitzpatrick, 24, says The Hunt for Raoul Moat will bring the horror of 2010 back for her and Moat's victims.
She told The Sun earlier this month: "For many it will just be a crime drama on telly, but for me and his victims, and the family of his victims, this is our life.
"He was a monster. He ruined so many lives and I don't think it will ever stop affecting my life."
Kath, David Rathband's widow, says ITV emailed her ahead of filming the series but she opted not to reply - fearing her concerns being ignored would just cause further pain.
"I think ITV would have been open to speaking to me – but had I voiced these concerns, I don’t think it would have changed the outcome. Would that have made me feel worse? I don’t know," she explains.
Actor Matt Stokoe playing Moat in the ITV series (ITV STUDIOS)"If I had spoken to them, I would have asked what had driven the decision to make the programme and who would this benefit?
"Because I don’t think it will benefit anyone apart from them. If the object is to inform, I don’t think there is anything that could be said that hasn’t been said already. Even if there was, I don’t think this is the way to do it. And if it’s going to be sensationalised, I don’t think it should be given that platform."
The Hunt for Raoul Moat is being brought to screen by World Productions, the same company responsible for smash hit BBC drama Bodyguard, Line of Duty and Vigil.
A synopsis for tonight's opening episode reads: "Samantha Stobbart strikes up a new romance with Christopher Brown, but is increasingly nervous about her abusive ex-partner Raoul Moat, who is about to be released from prison. Possessive and pathologically jealous, Moat becomes incensed when he learns about her new partner and commits a brutal and violent crime upon his release from jail."
It adds: "On the run, Moat has no intention of going quietly and sets his sights on attacking the police force now hunting him."