'My arm saved me from killer Moat'

THE ex-girlfriend of Raoul Moat has revealed that doctors told her she would have died if she had not used her arm as a shield during the shooting.

Talking about her ordeal for the first time, Samantha Stobbart, 22, recalled the night when her ex-partner and the father to her child had shot her boyfriend to death and badly wounded her in the stomach and chest. He later went on to blind 42-year-old PC David Rathband after blasting him in the face.

Miss Stobbart recalled that she has spent a "happy" evening with new boyfriend Chris Brown before 37-year-old Moat gunned them down outside a friend's house.

Talking from her bed at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead, she described how she and karate instructor Brown, 29, had left a party in the early hours of the morning when her former partner struck. The couple had just shared a kiss when Moat started firing.

She said: "We got out the gate. Raoul jumped out from under the window. Actually, I shouted at Chris, 'That's Raoul'. That's when he shot Chris.

"Somehow my arm ended up in front of me as a block, and the doctors have turned round to me and said if my arm wasn't there, then I would have died.

"It's actually the arm that saved it because it took all the pressure and force from hitting my organs."

Miss Stobbart added that she had been enjoying "a really good time" with her boyfriend Chris at a friend's house before the incident. She added: "We were happy, chilling, relaxing."

The shootings led to a six-day manhunt for former nightclub bouncer. Moat, who had only been released from prison only two days earlier, is believed to have gone on the rampage after hearing that his ex-girlfriend had met somebody else.

He was on the run until Northumberland Police surrounded him in the riverside area of Rothbury, leading to a tense six-hour stand-off. The former nightclub doorman killed himself with a shot to the head during the early hours of 10 July.

A total of 15 people have been arrested during the Moat inquiry, and two have been charged with conspiracy to murder and have been remanded in custody. Eight people have been released on bail.

The case has been riddled with controversy. Officials have asked why it took six days to trap fugitive Moat and the use of a new, experimental Taser gun on Moat has also been called into question.

Witnesses described seeing the weapons, which had never been used by the force before, being handed out to officers. They are then reported to have practised firing them at rubbish sacks.

The handling of the incident has now been referred to the Independent Police Complaints Commission by Northumbria Police.

Earlier this week, the opening of the inquest into Moat's death heard two Tasers were fired at him around the same time as the fatal shot.

Two firearms officers from West Yorkshire Police fired XRep Tasers, which were not approved by the Home Office, the inquest was told.

The weapon, which is fired from a 12-gauge shotgun, is being tested by the Home Office before being approved for use by police forces in England and Wales. But the Home Office stressed police could use any weapon they saw fit as long as its use was "lawful, reasonable and proportionate".

Moat approached Miss Stobbart and her boyfriend a few doors down from her home in Birtley, Gateshead, early on Saturday, 3 July. He was eventually tracked down at 7.25pm on Friday July 9 in the Riverside park area of Rothbury.

Father-of-three Moat, released from Durham Prison just two days earlier, shot Brown three times with a sawn-off shotgun. He hit Samantha twice, causing horrific injuries to her stomach and chest. As he went on the run the former nightclub bouncer revealed in a 46-page rambling letter how he had taken gunpowder out of the shotgun cartridge used to shoot Samantha, so he would wound and scar her.

Miss Stobbart is reported to have told her mother: "I will not let that monster beat me. I have to learn to live with the scars but I will do it. I am determined to recover and carry on a normal life. If I don't lead a normal life it means he has beaten me but I just cannot let him totally crush my spirit."

A Facebook group, RIP Raoul Moat You Legend, which attracted 35,000 members, was removed after it came under fire from Prime Minister David Cameron.