Raoul Moat's family pay for second post-mortem following revelations in the MailDaily Mail
July 21 2010
A second post-mortem will be carried out on Raoul Moat's body today after his family paid for one to prevent a 'cover-up'.
They have accused police of killing him with a Taser gun.
Police say Moat turned a shotgun on himself after a six-hour standoff, but following revelations in the Mail, the family say the fatal wound was inconsistent with a blast from such a weapon.
Moat was on the run for a week after shooting ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart, 22, executing her partner, Chris Brown, 29, and blasting PC David Rathband.
Yesterday his brother Angus, 40 told the Mail that the family had paid for a second post-mortem.
'I'm sure there was a cover-up here,' he said. 'We just need a chronology of events and want to make sure everything is done properly.
'We want to establish what happened if we can do so.'
Moat, 37, was shot with two XRep Tasers - which have not yet been 'type approved' by the Home Office - around the time he apparently blasted himself in the head with a shotgun.
His family believe he was shot at point-blank-range. Firearms experts and Amnesty International say the X-Rep Taser is capable of causing lethal injuries when used up close.
But police chiefs yesterday praised officers for trying to bring Moat in alive using Tasers when he was cornered in Rothbury, Northumberland, in the early hours of July 10.
Sir Hugh Orde, President of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said it 'defined the British style of policing'.
The initial autopsy on Moat, a steroid-addicted former bouncer, suggested he died of a shotgun wound.
But his uncle, Charlie Alexander, 72, a former Royal Artillery warrant officer who identified his nephew's body, said the injuries did not resemble that of PC Rathband, 42, who was blasted with the same weapon.He said: 'I want to get to the bottom of this and I won't stop until I do. I have seen too many shotgun wounds to just accept what has been said.'When I identified his body I couldn't see any injuries on his face. There could be any number of reasons as to why, but I need to hear them explained to me properly with evidence to prove it.' The police watchdog, which is investigating the incident, said the injuries might not have been consistent with a sawn-off shotgun because Moat used 'homemade ammunition'.
Yesterday Mike Yardley, a firearms expert and former Army officer, said of the Taser: 'There is a possibility that this sort of weapon might inflict a serious injury if used at close range or if there was a problem with the marksmen.'
Amnesty International claims
334 people died between 2001 and 2008 after being hit by
Tasers in the U.S., where the X-Rep is in use.
Its UK arms programme director, Oliver Sprague, said: 'The Taser XRep is a potentially lethal weapon.'
But manufacturers say there is no medical evidence linking tasers with fatalities.
Although the X-Rep is still being tested, chief constables have been given discretionary powers to use it as long as the use of force is 'lawful, reasonable and proportionate'.
The number of those arrested on suspicion of helping Moat rose to 20 yesterday.
Two men and two women were arrested after raids in Newcastle and Blyth, Northumberland, on suspicion of assisting an offender.
Thirteen people are on police bail while two, Karl Ness and Qhuram Awan, have been charged with conspiracy to commit murder and possessing a firearm with intent to commit an indictable offence.
