Ray Mears has opened up about his role in the manhunt for killer Raoul Moat in 2010.
One week in July 2010 saw Britain’s biggest manhunt by Northumbria Police, after former bouncer and bodybuilder Moat shot three people – his ex-girlfriend, her new partner, and a police officer – two days after he was released from Durham Prison.
The following search featured 160 armed officers (10 per cent of those available in England and Wales at any one time), sniper teams and helicopters and concluded with Moat dying by suicide.
Also involved in the search was TV survival expert Mears, who got involved due to his expertise in tracking animals in the wild.
Public interest in the case has been reignited this week following the release of ITV’s three-part drama The Hunt for Raoul Moat, which concluded on Tuesday (18 April) night.
You can read The Independent’s review here.
Appearing on Good Morning Britainon Wednesday (19 April), Mears said that he’d offered to help after police had previously asked him to offer his tracking skills for future cases where he felt he could help.
“The first day they weren’t interested, and then the next day I got a call, ‘Come now’.”
Describing the hunt as “a pretty heavy” and “risky” event, Mears said that his concern was less Moat than “messing up” and “letting everyone else down”.
Mears added that he never came face to face with Moat, which was both “a good thing” and a cause of frustration.
“I know we were close,” he said. “We all felt that we were getting close. The sign was getting fresher… A lot happened at that point.”
However, he pointed out a couple of factual inaccuracies in the show, saying: “In the drama you’ll see open woodland, [but] it wasn’t like that at all.”
Asked how he felt about the idea that ITV’s drama was turning Moat into a “hero”, Mears admitted that he hadn’t seen all of the show, so didn’t know “how he’s being portrayed”.
“What made him is what we should be investigating,” he said. “What’s sad is his victims often get forgotten and we should remember them. They were innocent victims… I feel sorry for them.”
