Moat inquest returns suicide verdict

Police fired shotgun Tasers as Moat prepared to kill himself in Rothbury, Northumberland, in July last year, but the round had no effect on him, the three-week inquest at Newcastle Crown Court heard.

The 37-year-old ex-doorman was surrounded by police marksmen, as negotiators tried for six hours to get him to surrender. But Moat was determined not to go back to prison.

The police watchdog cleared officers involved in the death of Raoul Moat of any wrongdoing.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission investigated the police response to the crisis from the moment the gunman was first sighted in Rothbury, Northumberland, to the moment he was pronounced dead in hospital, almost seven hours later.

Investigators supported Northumbria Police’s decision to use unauthorised shotgun Tasers during the six hour stand-off on the banks of the River Coquet.

The police watchdog also said the Northumbria force could have done better when it came to recording the stand-off. Vital evidence was lost as a negotiator tried, with mixed success, to tape the final dialogue on a hand-held Dictaphone in the rain.

The court heard that his mood changed in his last moments, after he told police “It ends, in this field, tonight”. Almost a week after his shooting rampage had begun, Moat blasted himself in the head with a sawn off shotgun.

In a written narrative explanation at the end of the inquest, the jury said questions had been raised “about It was the first time officers had seen the experimental weapons. But they rejected claims that the use of the rifles had caused Moat to shoot himself.