Raoul Moat’s daughter:
It’s been ten years since Raoul Moat went on a murderous rampage across the North East, sparking a nationwide manhunt. Closer speaks to his daughter Katelaine Fitzpatrick about how her father’s actions still leave her feeling ashamed…
“What
my father did haunts me”
Katelaine Fitzpatrick was just 11 years old when, along with the rest of the country, she watched on TV as police launched a manhunt for her father – 37-year-old Raoul Moat, who was on the run after going on a shooting spree. Moat had just been released from prison in July 2010 when he shot his ex-girlfriend, her new partner and a police officer. After hearing about what he’d done, Katelaine and her mum Caroline feared for their lives.
Now 21, Katelaine has never met her father, but he’s cast a dark shadow over her whole life. Currently living in the Newcastle suburb of Kenton with her partner David Hines, 28, she says, “I never knew my dad – the first time I heard his voice was on the news when they played a recording of him threatening police. “Being his flesh and blood sickens me at times. I hate the fact that I came from a man who is that evil.
“I’m so sorry to the people he has hurt. If I had the chance to meet the victims and their families and say I’m so sorry for what my dad did, and to show that I care, I would.”
VIOLENT
Growing up, Katelaine thought her stepfather was her dad. Moat hadn’t wanted anything to do with Katelaine – and had even threatened to kill her as an unborn child.
But when she was seven, a relative told her that her dad was Raoul Moat, a former bouncer and tree surgeon, who had a reputation for being violent.
Katelaine says, “I’d seen him around and wanted to meet him one day when I was older. My mum told me that he’d been a good man who went bad because of drugs and had been violent towards her. She told me not to get my hopes up about meeting him, but that she’d support me and try to help.”
But it was never to be. In the early hours of Saturday 3 July 2010, Moat – who’d been released from jail two days earlier after serving a short sentence for common assault – hunted down his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart. He found her outside her friend’s house and, motivated by fury and jealousy that she’d ended their relationship, shot Samantha’s new boyfriend, Chris Brown, three times, killing him, before turning his gun on Samantha, shooting her in the stomach, and leaving her fighting for her life.
He then made a threatening phone call to the police before shooting motor patrol officer PC David Rathband, who was on duty at a roundabout.
TERRIFIED
PC Rathband was taken to hospital in a critical condition. Both he and Samantha survived, but PC Rathband was left blinded by the attack, and tragically killed himself 18 months later.
Moat went on the run for nearly a week, taunting the police with phone messages saying that he was hunting
them down. Escorted by officers, Katelaine and her mum fled to Birmingham to stay with family, as they were terrified that they were on Moat’s hit list. Katelaine says, “I couldn’t believe this evil man they were talking about on the news was my father.”
Police eventually tracked down Moat to the village of Rothbury in Northumberland. During the stand-off, things took a bizarre turn when footballer Paul “Gazza” Gascoigne turned up wanting to speak to Moat – despite not knowing him. Later he revealed that he thought he “could have saved him”.
TAUNTED
After six hours of negotiations, Moat took his own life. Katelaine says, “We heard the gunshot on the news – the moment my dad pulled the trigger on himself. It was a surreal experience. Mum cried, but I just felt numb.”
She adds, “Back then, it didn’t really affect me. I didn’t know him, so I couldn’t miss what I’d never had. It’s as I grew up that I struggled.”
Two months later, Katelaine started secondary school and was targeted by bullies.
She remembers, “I was very shy and quiet. I kept my head down, but people would constantly come up to me and say, ‘You’re Raoul Moat’s daughter.’
“I come from a small area and everyone knew everyone else’s business.
“No one wanted to be my friend. I was taunted and pushed around every day.
I felt so lonely and was scared that the bullies were right and that maybe I would turn out like him. What if it was in my DNA and I couldn’t do anything about it?
“It didn’t help that I looked so much like him. I’d try to defend myself, but it made the bullying worse, so I just stopped going to school. I fell behind, but it was better than the relentless hate campaign.”
Katelaine left school with three GCSEs and went on to college to study hair and beauty.
She says, “Without a doubt, I’d have done better at school if it hadn’t been for him. The bullying ruined my confidence. I hardly had any friends or boyfriends. I felt worthless. I was depressed and hardly ever went out.”
It’s been ten years since her father went on his murder spree, and over the past four years since she left school, Katelaine has been trying her best to move forward. She says it’s helped that she has built a friendship with two of Moat’s other children, the daughters of another of his abused exes.
MOVE FORWARD
Katelaine says, “He has made some really good people despite the man he was – it’s probably the one good thing he did in his entire life.”
She adds, “On Father’s Day, I write him a card, then burn it and let off a balloon. I find it hard to explain why – I think it’s a case of, if he’s looking down, I want him to know what he’s missing and the life he could have had. Sometimes I write, ‘I hate you for what you’ve done.’”
Katelaine is now in a relationship and, before the coronavirus pandemic, worked in a charity shop, to which she hopes to return. She’d like to become a carer one day.
She says, “My partner accepts me and says I’m nothing like my dad, and I’m starting to believe it. What he did will haunt me for the rest of my life – but he’s held me back for too long. I’m determined not to let his crimes hold me back any more.”
❛ BEING HIS FLESH AND BLOOD SICKENS ME ❜