Paul Gascoigne explains exactly what happened when he tried to see Raoul Moat
One of the most bizarre moments of the manhunt for Raoul Moat was when former England footballer Paul Gascoigne showed up armed with a fishing rod and a bucket of chicken.
The manhunt for Moat is the subject of a recent ITV drama, The Hunt for Raoul Moat, following the events in 2010 when he shot three people in the span of 24 hours.
Moat shot ex-partner Samantha Stobbart, who doctors said would have died if her arm had not blocked one of the bullets, and shot dead her boyfriend, Christopher Brown.
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He also shot PC David Rathband, who survived the shooting but took his own life two years later.
Moat then went on the run and was subjected to a manhunt near Rothbury, and something which doesn't feature in the ITV drama is the moment when Gascoigne arrived claiming he was a friend of the killer and wanted to try and talk him down.
Later that year, Gascoigne explained his version of events and what he was thinking when he decided to try and intervene in an interview with RTÉ.
He said: "I was sitting in the house, I was bored and started having a few drinks. He just come on the headlines, Moat, Rothbury, two police with a gun at his head or something and I went 'oh I know him'.
"I remember he used to be on the doors and a couple of times he'd be on the doors at Newcastle. I just got some chicken, fishing rod, a couple of cans, a blanket to keep him warm or something.
"I got to the taxi driver, get in the taxi says 'Gazza, where you going', I say 'ok, just keep on driving' and this all had been in the news for a while and I said 'Rothbury' and the taxi driver starts s**tting himself."
"He was like 'you're not going there', I said 'yeah, yeah just a friend of mine', he went 'not him is it' and I went 'yeah, yeah'."
When he arrived, he was told by police to leave and had to get a lift back to Newcastle, only realising what a stir he'd caused the next morning.
"I remember the policeman stopped when I got out with chicken in one hand, cans in the other and the rod on my back. He went 'where are you going', I went 'I'm going to see me mate Moaty'." Gazza explained.
"Police were laughing their heads off. I remember saying 'I know where he is', I says 'there the helicopter light's on him', they went 'Paul, that's a star'.
"It was a star, a bright star, I thought it was a helicopter, like. I turned around and thought I'd better get home and my taxi driver had done a runner. Shot off, he panicked, I had to get a lift home from a photographer."
"The next day I had 15-20 messages and I thought 'oof, what have I done yesterday', don't remember a thing and I was like 'oh my god I am in trouble'."
Joe Harker