Ray Mears has spoken out about being blue lighted 'at 150mph' as he was called into urgently assist with the huge search for killer Raoul Moat in 2010, with the survival expert revisiting his crucial role in an ITV documentary about the killer.
The events of 13 years have been thrust back into the primetime spotlight in a big way this week, thanks to three part drama series The Hunt for Raoul Moat, which came to an end on Tuesday night. The final part of the series from World Productions, focused on the final stages of the widespread search for Moat, after he shot dead Christopher Brown and blinded PC David Rathband, after firing at him from point blank range.
While Ray wasn't a character in The Hunt for Raoul Moat, just like Paul Gascoigne was also 'cut' from the ITV drama, he did play a key part in helping police track down Moat, being called into the search operation days after it was established he had fled to Rothbury.
Ray revisits what happened in the summer of 2010 when he was interviewed for Man Hunt: The Raoul Moat Story, explaining how he was first called to meet with Northumbria Police in Ponteland, before a brisk trip further north.
Ray said: "I wasn't there for very long, before they whacked me in a police car, blue lights, 150pm up to Rothbury."
Remembering the atmosphere in the quiet village, Ray continued: "When we came into the village, I was surprised by the scale of the operation. If you've seen a Hollywood movie, that's small scale compared to what the police were running at Rothbury, it was very impressive."
Appearing on Wednesday's Good Morning Britain, Ray addressed the high risk factor to the operation, telling hosts Susanna Reid and Martin Lewis: "Nobody in their right mind would have gone into the areas we were within that time frame. To do so, would have been suicide, because he was there, he was in the area. Nobody in their right mind would have gone into these areas."
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