Moat's father takes shootings blame (From Bucks Free Press)

Moat's father takes shootings blame

2:28pm Monday 6th September 2010 in

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Killer Raoul Moat's father has blamed himself for the fugitive gunman's shooting spree, because he never knew his son.

Silver-haired Peter Blake was estranged from Moat's mother before Moat, 37, was born and said he never had access to his son.

He told ITV1's This Morning he was "stunned" when he heard on the television news that Moat had shot three people and was on the run.

After declaring war on police Moat hid for a week before he was cornered in Rothbury, Northumberland, finally killing himself following a six-hour stand-off with armed police on July 10.

Before he pulled the trigger on his sawn-off shotgun, Moat reportedly told negotiators that he had no father, and that nobody cared for him.

Mr Blake, 69, told the TV show: "Well it just makes me feel even worse than I did before because he did have a dad, and his dad did care for him, but he never had access to him and that was the fundamental problem, I think, in his life."

He went on to accept responsibility for Moat's horrific crimes - shooting his ex-lover Sam Stobbart, in Birtley, Gateshead, after killing her new boyfriend Chris Brown, and 24 hours later blinding unarmed Pc David Rathband in Newcastle - because his son lacked a father figure.

Mr Blake said: "That's what I blame myself for really. If I'd have been there for him any time in his life, I think none of this would have happened, you would never have heard of him."

The former doorman and his half-brother Angus were largely brought up by their maternal grandmother in Newcastle's West End, and had a strained relationship with his mother and step-father.