Police officer shot and blinded by fugitive gunman Raoul Moat in July 2010 is believed to have killed himself
The police officer shot and blinded by the fugitive gunman Raoul Moat had assured police he was "OK" days before being found dead at his home in a suspected suicide.
Concerns about the wellbeing of PC David Rathband were raised by Twitter users who contacted police following comments he apparently made on the social networking site. He was reported to have tweeted "RIP PC Rathband" and that he had "lost my sight, my job, my wife and my marriage" and would "say goodbye to my children".
But Rathband, due to go back to work with the Northumbria force next month, assured officers he was all right and looking forward to returning to work, and said the Tweets had been posted by someone else. His body was discovered on Wednesday night at his home in Blyth, Northumberland. Police are not looking for anyone in connection with his death.
Despite surviving the shotgun blasts that left 200 pellets lodged in his skull and saying he harboured "no malice" towards the man who had pulled the trigger, and despite his determination to get back to being a policeman, Rathband, 44, never recovered from the injuries he received early on Sunday 4 July 2010 as he sat in his patrol car at a roundabout above the A1.
Officers from Northumbria police – the force in which Rathband had served for a decade until he was blinded by Moat – were called to his house on Wednesday following "concerns for his welfare".
Tributes to the father of two, who set up a charity to help emergency service personnel injured in the line of duty after his shooting, were rapid and uniform in their appreciation of his bravery on Thursday.
"I met David, he was an extraordinarily brave man, and after his horrific injuries he did an enormous amount for charities and for other injured police officers, and for families who had lost police officers in the line of duty," said David Cameron.
The home secretary, Theresa May, described him as "a brave and fine policeman"; Sue Sim, the Northumbria chief constable, said he was a dedicated officer who had shown "outstanding bravery in what was a terrifying situation", while Sir Hugh Orde, the head of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said Rathband was simply "an officer who personified the values of British policing".
But to Moat, who hated the police and had declared his intention to go "hunting for officers" after shooting his former partner and killing her new boyfriend on 3 July 2010, he was nothing more than an easy target. The 37-year-old former bouncer crept up on Rathband's marked police car and shot the officer in the face and shoulder.
Rathband, who saved his life by pretending to be dead, was rushed to Newcastle general hospital and underwent surgery but lost the sight in both eyes.
Moat, who became the subject of a £1.4m manhunt involving hundreds of officers and an RAF Tornado, shot himself dead during a standoff with police near Rothbury on 10 July.
Rathband's resilience and enthusiasm on being discharged from hospital just three weeks after the attack impressed and surprised in equal measure.
"I'm just a policeman and a person very proud to be a policeman and that's one of the things that keeps me going," he told BBC Radio 5 Live. "I want to get back to a job that I enjoyed doing."
Three months later, he launched the Blue Lamp Foundation to provide financial help for injured members of the emergency services and their families. In order to reach his target of raising £1m in the foundation's first three years, Rathband embarked on a series of charity events, including running the London marathon last year. With the help of a friend who guided him around the course, he finished in six hours and 49 minutes.
Such distractions, however, were not enough to help him overcome the bitterness and anger he began to feel about what had happened to him.
In March last year he said he was going to sue Northumbria police for leaving him "a sitting duck" while Moat was on his rampage. "There are individuals within Northumbria police who made terrible mistakes and should be held accountable," he said. "If you know somebody has made a direct threat towards someone you either remove that threat or remove the person that is being threatened."
Last August, he was arrested on suspicion of assault over an incident at his home, but was released shortly after. The next month, just before the start of the inquest into Moat's death, he issued a statement saying he was to "live separately from his wife and family". Two months later, he announced on Twitter that he and his wife, Kath, were separating permanently.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's In Touch programme in September, he said he felt neglected and was struggling to deal with his life. "I can push myself to go out the door and go and do all these things but mentally and emotionally they are different and I'm not in a place where I've evolved to enjoy being blind and having a fulfilled life and that's the bit I'm struggling with," he said.
"I'm hoping that one day comes along and I'd love to [reach a] point where I can get to a day in my life and say: 'Do you know what? I've cracked this'."
On Saturday, as he prepared to return from visiting his brother in Australia, Rathband tweeted: "Very emotional few days, but back on track. Now focusing on my trip back to the UK and the road ahead."
Northumbria Chief Constable Sue Sim said: "On Friday we were made aware of concerns from members of the public about what was being placed on Twitter allegedly by David. David's welfare officers immediately got in touch with him.
"He reassured them. He actually said it was not him that had been placing it on Twitter.
"He said he was all right, he said he was coming back to the force area, back home to Northumbria, and my officers met him off the plane (at Heathrow) on Monday and took him home and had been working with them since. He told them he was ok."
She added: "We were working with David from the time this tragic incident happened when his life was changed forever. And he has been struggling to come to terms with the impact of that."
A spokesman for the Police Federation of England and Wales said it had "looked to offer as much help and support as we could" to the officer, who it described as "a remarkable man who sacrificed a great deal for his communities and his family".Paul Garner, who completed a sponsored walk with Rathband at the Blue Lamp Foundation launch, and was one of those who went to leave flowers outside Rathband's home yesterday, said the officer was one of the bravest men he had ever met.
"He was full of kindness and dignity despite what had happened to him," said Garner as he laid a bouquet close to the front door. "He kept on keeping on as long as he could but it all became too much to take. Now Raoul Moat has killed him too."