Fifteen years on from the dramatic moment when Raoul Moat was captured by armed police, the two officers who caught him have spoken for the first time about the killer
Emmeline Saunders Features Writer
19:51, 09 Jul 2025Updated 19:56, 09 Jul 2025
Damian Sharp (R) was a firearms officer with West Yorkshire Police tasked with finding the shotgun used by Raoul Moat (L)
Fifteen years on from the shocking events that saw Raoul Moat caught with an illegal sawn-off shotgun, the two firearms officers who apprehended him have broken their silence on his erratic actions and the final moments before he ended his life on July 10, 2010.
Former Newcastle bouncer Moat, 37, had just served an 18-week term for assaulting his nine year old daughter when he was released from prison. The ex-bodybuilder was dealt a further blow shortly before regaining freedom; his ex-partner Samantha Stobbart – mother to his youngest child – had begun a new relationship with Chris Brown, whom Moat mistakenly believed to be an undercover police officer.
Fresh out of incarceration, Moat made a concerning Facebook status saying: “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.”
His messages soon turned sinister as he began a sick game of cat-and-mouse with Northumbria Police, bragging on social media amidst a deadly spree. This spree launched in the early hours of July 3, 2010, as he shadowed Samantha and her new partner Chris, a 29 year old karate teacher, to a property they were visiting.
Samantha Stobbart(Image: Press Association)
Moat, after lurking outside for an hour and a half, shot Samantha through the living room window, wounding her in the stomach and arm. Chris was fatally shot in the head by Moat when he stepped outside to confront him, after which Moat fled the scene, reports the Mirror.
West Yorkshire Police firearms officers Adam Twigg and Damian Sharp were deployed to provide armed protection for Samantha as she recuperated from surgery in hospital.
In less than a day following his initial murder, Moat severely injured PC David Rathband by shooting him in the face while he was in his patrol car. Mere minutes before the assault, Moat had phoned the police declaring his intent.
Undated file handout photo issued by Northumbria Police of Chris Brown(Image: PA)
He called again post-attack, criticising the police for “not taking me seriously” and displaying no regret. Moat then became a fugitive, heading to Rothbury, Northumberland, where he survived on dead mice and grew increasingly paranoid.
Despite a 160-officer task force, advised by survival expert Ray Mears, failing to locate Moat for days, Adam and Damian were assigned to search for the shotgun used by Moat. By that time, Moat had left signs of his rough living, including a rudimentary campsite in Rothbury with a dictaphone that held hours of diatribes against the police.
Chillingly, he also declared his deadly intentions on the recording: “For every lie I see in that paper, any paper, I will kill an innocent member of the public.
“One of the jobs we got was to go and investigate a graveyard where a groundsperson had come across some disturbed earth and had not buried anybody in this particular area for decades. So we got sent up there with a shovel,” Adam recalls. “Knowing what I know now, I think he’d put his gun there,” Damian believes.
“But he’d removed it again before we got there.”
After a lengthy and unproductive search, the duo headed to a nearby bakery, where the proprietor had agreed to give away unsold goods at the end of their shift. “We’re in there with all this kit on, and I’m driving the ARV [armed-response vehicle],” Damian recounts.
“Twiggy’s in the passenger seat and I tell him we’ll head down the road and turn right, near the river. I take a big bite of a cream bun and all the cream flops down the front of my vest. Just then I look up and there he is, standing with the shotgun in his hand.
“As I’m scanning the riverbank I notice this elderly couple walking backwards,” Adam describes. “They’ve seen Moat too, but fortunately, he’s gazing into the river and hasn’t clocked them, or us sneaking up on him from behind.”
The tense standoff remains vivid for the two officers involved. Damian recounts, “He turned around, pointed the gun at us as we’re getting out of the car with our G36s [assault rifles used by police], then turned the gun to his ear,” and reflects, “I’m thinking, ‘just don’t involve the elderly couple’, because that’s when we would have had to shoot him first.”
Adam, skilled in observing minute body language cues, discerned that Moat, although cornered, was no imminent danger to anyone but himself. “I saw he had his thumb inside of the trigger guard,” Adam explains, adding, “He couldn’t bring his gun to bear without changing his hand position. We started shouting at him to put the weapon down, but he just walked off sideways, holding the gun to his head.”
Throughout a gruelling six-hour ordeal, Adam and Damian kept their firearms trained on Moat while he unleashed tirades about his deep-seated animosity towards the police, expressing regret that he hadn’t “finished off” the visually-impaired PC Rathband. Moat also expressed intense bitterness about his family, alleging estrangement and avowing his hatred for them.
Specialist negotiators arrived at the scene in attempts to defuse the situation, an already surreal encounter made even more so by the unexpected appearance of iconic England footballer Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne who, in a bewildering act, offered to entice Moat with “chicken and lager” to surrender. Gazza conceded afterwards that alcohol had clouded his judgment, leading to the mistaken belief that Moat was a friend.
As darkness descended and time marched on, the situation with Moat evidently started shifting. “The vibe I got from him was that he would never surrender, and as time went on he was getting more desperate,” Adam recounted.
“Eventually he changed the position of the weapon at the side of his head, at which point two colleagues fired the XRep Taser [a long-range Taser that operates without wires] at him, and then he pulled the trigger and shot himself in the head.”
Moat died in hospital, denying his victims any true sense of justice.
PC Rathband tragically ended his own life 18 months subsequent to his grievous injuries, leaving behind a legacy of resilience and determination commemorated by his daughter. In tribute to her father during the lead-up to the London 2012 Olympic Games, she courageously bore the Olympic flame blindfolded, symbolising the journey they had hoped to share.
PC David Rathband (Image: Newcastle Chronicle)
An exhaustive 15-day inquest concluded Moat’s demise to be suicide, while the Independent Police Complaints Commission’s scrutiny found nil evidence implicating officers in misconduct, this included the firing of the novel, untried XRep X12 Taser by two officers moments before Moat inflicted his fatal gunshot.
In 2023, Moat’s daughter Chantelle revealed to the Mirror the traumatic experiences of her childhood, during which her father subjected her to brutal punishments and horrific cruelty, including killing her pet dog outside her bedroom. She described him as a lifelong monster, stating: “My father has always been a monster. That is all I have ever known him as. When I was young, there was no monster under my bed – he slept next door to me,” and expressed her disgust at the admiration he received after his death, saying it was “sickening”.
She admitted feeling relieved that he was gone, stating “We were better off with him dead. I don’t mourn him. I mourn the dad I should have had.”