Armed with a sawn-off shotgun, Raoul Moat arrived at a house where his ex-girlfriend Sam Stobbart was staying in the early hours of Saturday, July 3, 2010. Seven days later, after shooting three people, including Stobbart, and going on the run, the bodybuilder took his own life following a six-hour stand-off with police.
It marked the grisly end of one of the biggest manhunts in recent history. As a new ITV drama prepares to tell the story of the hunt for Moat, the M.E.N. looks back at his life and crimes - and his disturbing legacy.
"There have always been some who have hero-worshipped criminals whether it is Ned Kelly, Al Capone or Billy the Kid. There has always been a section of society who hate the police as the symbol of what they see as an unfair society or just because they get in the way of their criminal business."
Then Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy wrote those words in his blog in September 2010, two months after the death of Raoul Moat. In the 13 years since, Moat's infamy, like that of fellow killer Dale Cregan, has only grown.
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It's a disturbing legacy that's seen Moat become something of a cause célèbre for the violent and damaged - and for those who, in Sir Peter's words, 'hate the police'. Earlier this year a Lancashire man was jailed after threatening to 'kill a police woman like Dale Cregan and Raoul Moat'.
In 2015 a gun-obsessed 33-year-old from North Wales was given a 12 month prison sentence after claiming he was planning to ambush police in a bid to become the next Cregan or Moat.
And in July last year a local council in Merseyside was forced to remove a memorial plaque from a bench which read 'In loving memory of Raoul Moat, 1973 - 2010, Taken too soon'. But how did it come to this and what drove Moat to embark on his bloody spree?
Moat had been out of Durham Prison for just two days when he embarked on his shooting spree. The 37-year-old former bouncer and tree surgeon had served an 18-week sentence for assaulting a nine-year-old relative.
It was the first time he'd been inside, but Moat was no stranger to police, having been charged for seven different offences and arrested twelve times throughout his life. Moat never knew his father. He was raised by his grandmother, as his mother, who suffered with bipolar disorder, spent a lot of time in hospital.
At 6ft 3ins and 17st, he cut a large and imposing figure - and was known to have a short fuse. He had three children of his own, including a daughter with Stobbart.
But the couple split while Moat was in prison, with Stobbart claiming she had begun an affair with a police officer to keep him at bay. It only served to increase Moat's hatred of the police, who he blamed for the way his life had unravelled.
Within hours of getting out of jail he was posting on Facebook.
"Just got out of jail, I've lost everything, my business, my property and to top it all off my lass of six years has gone off with someone else. I'm not 21 and I can't rebuild my life. Watch and see what happens," he wrote.
He posted threats to police and made further detailed warnings in subsequent phone calls and letters. Just after 1am on July 1, Moat arrived at the house in Birtley where Stobbart was staying with her new partner, karate instructor Chris Brown.
Moat later claimed he crouched under an open window to the living room, where he heard the pair mocking him. At 2.40am Brown left the house to confront Moat and was shot dead at close range.
Inside the house, Stobbart's mother desperately tried to call the police. Moat fired through the window hitting his ex-girlfriend in the arm and stomach. She was taken to hospital and received life-saving surgery.
The next day, after calling police to warn them what he was about to do, Moat gunned down Pc David Rathband as he sat in his patrol car on a roundabout in East Denton. At first it appeared to be a random attack, as Moat had said he would target any police officer in his path, but it later emerged Pc Rathband had previously confiscated his van.
Rathband was rushed to hospital in critical condition, having sustained head and upper body injuries. The shooting left him permanently blind.
Moat again called the police and confessed what he had done. Officers tried to convince him to hand himself in for the sake of his children, but their pleas were ignored.
Moat then sent a rambling, 49-page letter to the force to declare war on the police, for 'taking away' his children, his freedom and his girlfriend. In a chilling warning, he wrote: "The public need not fear me but the police should as I won't stop till I'm dead."
As a huge manhunt was launched, a sighting of Moat was reported in Seaton Delaval, Northumberland, with an armed robbery committed by someone matching his description - before he made his way to Rothbury in the county. Helicopters, dogs, a Royal Air Force aircraft and 160 armed officers, including several from Greater Manchester Police, were dispatched to find and stop the fugitive.
Road blocks and a two mile exclusion zone were set up around the town, while local schools received armed guards as police scoured campsites and potential hiding places. 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 track him down.
On July 9, villagers were warned to stay inside. Police had Moat surrounded on the bank of the River Coquet. He was pointing a sawn-off shotgun to his neck.
Food and drink was sent in as Moat's best friend Tony Laidler was brought to the scene to try persuade him to surrender. Things then took a bizarre turn as former England footballer Paul Gascoigne arrived in a dressing gown carrying chicken, a loaf of tiger bread, four cans of lager and a fishing rod.
Gazza, then at his most vulnerable during his battle with addiction, had been drinking and snorting lines of cocaine. He told police at the cordon he knew Moat and asked to speak to him. Eventually he was turned away.
The Daily Star reported how, during his ‘Evening with Paul Gascoigne’ talk at Newcastle's Tyne Theatre in 2015, the star described how he came to be at the scene, saying: “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.”
He continued: “A few whiskies, another few lines, I've had about eight lines and we went to school together.
“He was in Rothbury, that's where I used to go fishing so I know the area quite well.
“Another line and I have a couple of fishing rods and a chicken. He's going to need a drink. I've had 14 lines now and he's my brother.
“I've got my fishing rods, I've got Barbour jacket, I've got my four cans, I've got my chicken. My chicken is important because he must be starving.”
Gascoigne only realised what he had done the next day.
"You know in the morning when you panic the first thing you do is look at your mobile.
“I've got 250 missed calls, I was like — what have I done? I've got a chicken by my side, fishing rods, a Barbour, I'm like f*** me I must have done something.
“I turn on Sky News — Paul Gascoigne was there last night.”
At around 1.10am on July 10 a single shot was heard. Moat was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead on arrival. Police released a statement saying he appeared to have shot himself and no shots were fired by officers.
An inquest later found that police had fired two tazer guns at Moat in an attempt to prevent his suicide, but it wasn't clear whether this was 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 his crimes. Ness received three life sentences and told he would serve a minimum of 40 years in prison for murder, conspiracy to murder and attempted murder. 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.
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 guns he shot Brown and Stobbart with. Speaking after the sentencing, 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.
"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."
Tragically Pc Rathband took his own life in February 2012. An inquest heard he struggled to adjust to life following his horrific injuries.
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 survived and recovered from her injuries but remained haunted by what happened.
In an interview with The People in 2012 she revealed she had considered suicide when she heard the news of PC Rathband's death.
"I know what happened will haunt me forever, and I'll never forget it 100 per cent," she said. "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."
The Hunt for Raoul Moat is being brought to screen by the production company behind hit shows Line of Duty, Bodyguard and Vigil. Filming for the three part series took place in Yorkshire last year, with a cast including ex Bodyguard star Matt Stokoe as Moat and Inspector George Gently actor Lee Ingeleby as police chief Neil Adamson.
There will be three episodes of The Hunt for Raoul Moat, airing on consecutive nights on ITV1. The episodes will be broadcast from 9pm on Sunday April 16, Monday April 17 and Tuesday April 18.
Each episode will be just under an hour long. On Wednesday April 19, an hour-long documentary called Manhunt: The Raoul Moat Story will air.
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