Tasers ‘not effective’ non-lethal weapon

UNAUTHORISED shotgun Tasers used by police in the stand-off with crazed killer Raoul Moat were not an effective non-lethal weapon, a Home Office expert has told an inquest.

The hearing at Newcastle Crown Court was told yesterday that in testing “more often than not” the X-Rep cartridges did not achieve their purpose of incapacitating the target.

Officers fired at Moat as he prepared to kill himself with the shotgun he had used to wound ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart, kill her lover Chris Brown and blind Pc David Rathband.

The inquest has heard that police fired the X12 Tasers – which were licensed only for testing –because standard X26 handheld Tasers did not have the necessary range.

Graham Smith, a Home Office physicist who advised the Association of Chief Police Officers on weapons, explained to the jury that the idea is that the projectile’s nose sticks into the target’s torso, and if he then grabs trailing wires to pull it out, an electrical circuit is made, causing incapacitation.

But tests showed that the secondary contact with skin, required to complete the circuit, often did not happen.

Newcastle Coroner David Mitford asked if the witness considered it an effective non-lethal weapon. Mr Smith replied: “I think conceptually it could be but in its current configuration I don’t think it is.”

He agreed that there were few alternatives available to police given Moat was ten metres away pointing a shotgun at his head during the stand-off in Rothbury, Northumberland.

The inquest continues.