Fugitive Moat ate dead mice to stave off hunger

Fugitive Raoul Moat grew so hungry that he resorted to eating dead mice when on the run from police.

Police negotiators attempted to strike up a rapport with the gunman by feeding him sandwiches as he knelt on a riverbank with a shotgun to his head.

Moat knew he faced the rest of his life in prison, which made police negotiations with him extremely difficult, his inquest at Newcastle Crown Court heard yesterday.

A police negotiator who saw the killer shoot himself in the head said the gunman was a “broken man” who was “100 per cent suicidal”.

The officer, who was granted anonymity by the court, said: “He told us he had been starving and had been eating dead mice.

“Giving him food and drink was a positive action in which he learned to trust us a little bit; it taught him that not all police officers are bad.”

He described seeing Moat wound himself then shoot himself dead with two shots from a sawn-off shotgun.

He described seeing a “diamond-shaped flash” as Moat fired the second, fatal shot at his head. The former doorman had been kneeling upright with the double-barrelled sawn-off shotgun “wedged tightly” beneath his chin.

The inquest continues.