It was the manhunt that shocked the UK in the summer of 2010, and the hunt of Raoul Moat took a bizarre turn when footballer Paul Gascoigne appeared on the scene Years later it was also revealed that survival specialist Ray Mears actually helped with the major police investigation.
Violent bodybuilder Moat went on a deadly gun rampage, shooting and wounding his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart before killing her new partner Christopher Brown and permanently blinding third victim PC David Rathband, who tragically took his own life 18 months later.
Moat then led police officers on a week long manhunt that left Britons in fear before he was eventually surrounded by police by the River Coquet in Rothbury, Northumberland. But in a bizarre twist to the end of the case, former England footballer Gazza turned up at the stand-off in a dressing gown with lager, chicken and a fishing rod in tow. For more on this story, click here.
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Apparently he had heard about the sickening spree on the news, as the story was being intensely covered by media with police getting closer to Moat. And he thought that he would be able to help the murderer, who took his own life before officers could arrest him. Years later Paul opened up about the event, sharing that he was at the height of addiction and had been drinking and doing cocaine at the time, The Mirror reports.
He said: "You've got to realise I'm half cut anyway, sitting in the living room, I've got about six lines [of cocaine] lined up. I'm not realising much but a good line and me and Raoul Moat are sort of friends. A couple more lines and we are good buddies.
"A few whiskies, another few lines, I've had about eight lines and we went to school together." After snorting 14 lines of cocaine, Gazza revealed that he was convinced that Moat was his brother and he could 'save' him.
However, despite the strange interaction being headline news at the time and with rumours sparking that he was actually related to the evil murderer, producers of an upcoming drama series have confirmed he will have no part in the show.
ITV's The Hunt for Raoul Moat, which is set to air on Sunday (April 16) is a three-part true crime drama that will tell the story of the UK's biggest ever manhunt. Executive producer Jake Lushington spoke in a press conference to confirm that Gazza will be almost completely absent from the series because he had 'nothing to do' with the story being told.
He said: "For us, the story is Raoul Moat's crimes and the efforts to bring him to justice. The surprise brief and not very successful intervention from someone famous (Gazza) became a big story at the time but it didn't change the events at all. We've referred to it, but it's got nothing to do with the story we're trying to tell."
He added: "We haven't minimised the impact of Gazza turning up because it didn't have one. There is one line in the drama. That was such a small and irrelevant incident. We mention Gazza in one line because we’re not erasing it from history. But it certainly isn’t the concern of our story at all."
Writer Kevin Sampson also shared his thoughts on choosing not to have a character play the ex-Spurs player: "Paul Gascoigne was clearly not in a good place at that time. If It felt like we were sending somebody up who was struggling, we'd have to question our motives."
One famous name who did help police was survival expert Ray Mears, who used his tracking skills to lead police officers to the armed fugitive as he hid out in the woodland.
The television, who didn't speak publicly about his involvement until three years after the manhunt, was within 20ft of the gunman after tracking him for eight hours.
When Ray arrived in Rothbury he described the scene – with specialist police snipers, helicopters circling overhead and an RAF Tornado GR4 jet doing reconnaissance sorties – as like something “out of a Hollywood film set”.
In 2013, he said: “It was all a bit surreal. This is the first time I’ve talked about it and it’s because I feel there has been sufficient water under the bridge. A lot of people claimed for some reason to have been there but I know, because I was there, that they were not. I have experience of tracking for 40 years.
"I can’t imagine there would be that many people in the country who would have been in a position to help the police find someone who had gone into hiding.
"It was a real-life hunt; within my skill set but outside of my comfort zone.”
The Hunt for Raoul Moat stars Matt Stokoe as the vile Moat, Sally Messham as Samantha Stoddart and Lee Ingleby as DCS Neil Adamson of the Northumbria Police force.
Episodes will be broadcast on ITV1 from 9pm on Sunday April 16, Monday April 17 and Tuesday April 18 and each episode will be just under an hour long. When the series ends an hour-long documentary, Manhunt: The Raoul Moat Story will air on Wednesday April 19.
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