Raoul Moat Victim Was Killed Unlawfully

11 December 2013, 12:30 | Updated: 30 March 2016, 13:50

A coroner has ruled gunman Raoul Moat's victim Chris Brown was killed unlawfully, after a two week inquest.

A coroner ruled the precise risk posed by gun maniac Raoul Moat to a karate instructor he killed with a shotgun in Gateshead was not known.

29 year old Christopher Brown, was gunned down in cold blood after starting a relationship with Moat's ex-girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart, two days after the spurned lover was released from jail in July 2010.

Moat went on the run and the next night shot and blinded Pc David Rathband, who was unarmed and sitting in his marked police car.

Delivering a verdict of unlawful killing, coroner Terence Carney said despite the police and the prison service being made aware of Moat's possible intentions to harm, the exact threat he posed was not known.

He ruled:
"My finding is that Christopher Brown was unlawfully killed by Raoul Moat, the precise risk he presented not being known,'' he said.

I'm not satisfied that the information we have heard and was available was used appropriately.

But I'm not satisfied that a failure to use this information has directly caused Christopher Brown's death or contributed to it.''

Mr Carney praised the patience and stoicism of Mr Brown's mother, Sally, and said in all the coverage of Moat her son had been forgotten.

"In her statement to this inquest the mother of Chris Brown challenged us to remember him, saying that much has been said and written about Raoul Moat and that we should quite properly focus on her son

It can not be denied to her that much has been made in legal proceedings to date about those responsible for her son's death and the search for and death of Raoul Moat.

She may well be forgiven that in the accumulation of news print that has been expended on this matter to date, Christopher, the victim, has been forgotten.''

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UPDATED 3RD DECEMBER

An inquest will be opened today into the death of Chris Brown, the man shot and killed by gunman Roaul Moat in Birtley.

The 29 year old karate instructor was gunned down in cold blood after starting a relationship with Moat's ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart, two days after the spurned lover was released from jail in July 2010.

Ms Stobbart was also badly injured by shotgun pellets but survived. Moat went on the run and the next night shot and blinded Pc David Rathband, who was unarmed and sitting in his marked police car.

Coroner Terence Carney will hold a two-week inquest at Newcastle Crown Court into the circumstances of Mr Brown's murder in Birtley, Gateshead.

This hearing follows the Crown Court trial of two of Moat's accomplices and an inquest into how Moat shot himself during a stand-off with police in Rothbury, Northumberland.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission and an internal prison inquiry have looked at details of Moat's release from Durham Prison, including information passed on by jail staff that Moat planned revenge.

At a pre-inquest hearing, Mr Carney said those hearings had not allowed relatives of Mr Brown, who was from Slough, Berkshire, to ask questions.

An inquest for Mr Rathband, who was found hanged at his home last year, will be heard next month.