Ex-chief 'would have warned officers of Raoul Moat gun threat'

PC Rathband, left, was shot and blinded by Moat in 2010

The former head of Northumbria Police would have issued a warning after gunman Raoul Moat threatened to kill officers, a court heard.

PC David Rathband was shot and blinded by Moat early on 4 July 2010, minutes after he called the Northumbria force to say he was hunting for police.

Sue Sim said had she been in command she would have issued an alert.

PC Rathband took his life in 2012. His family are pursuing a claim for compensation.

Ms Sim - who retired as chief constable last year - was speaking on Wednesday, the second day of a High Court civil claim against the force brought by PC Rathband's sister Debbie Essery and brother Darren.

She was temporary chief constable at the time of the manhunt for Moat, which she led.

Superintendant Jo Farrell [now assistant chief constable] had been in command on the night he made his telephone threat to the force.

The hearing has been told no warning was issued to officers in the wake of Moat's call, something which should have been "a no brainer", the Rathband family said.

While Ms Sim conceded she would have alerted on-duty officers, she refused to criticise the senior officer who opted not to.

Former chief constable Sue Sim said should would have alerted officers after Moat's threat

She said: "What I have said is that I personally would have put out a call, but I do not in any way criticise assistant chief constable Farrell because she was doing all sorts of things that she believed was appropriate at the time.

"I wasn't informed until after David Rathband had been shot, when Ms Farrell phoned me, and I've been on record saying it's the worst phone call I've ever received.

"I was not aware before the time that he was shot that the telephone [Moat] call had come in.

"It was a very, very difficult set of circumstances for everybody and my heart goes out to the family of all of those concerned because they still live with it all the time."

In the early hours of July 3 2010, Moat shot his ex-partner Samantha Stobbart and murdered her new lover Chris Brown in Birtley, Gateshead, and went on the run.

The next night, Moat spoke to a Northumbria Police call handler for almost five minutes, saying he would kill any officer who came near him, that he was not coming in alive and, at one point, that he was hunting for officers.

The civil claim states that had PC Rathband, who was sitting in his patrol car on a Newcastle roundabout above the A1, been warned about the threat, he would have kept on the move.

The hearing continues.