Policer officer shot by Raoul Moat was haunted by crazed attacker in his nightmares

A police officer who was blinded by Raoul Moat was haunted by the gunman in his nightmares, he revealed in recordings before his death.

PC David Rathband lost his sight after being shot in the face by the police-hating ex-convict. His injuries caused hallucinations which left him unable to picture the faces of his loved ones.

Yet the one person whose features he could make out in his mind's eye was Moat – and the murderer tormented his nights, the Mirror reports.

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Tragically, 19 months after the July 2010 attack, David – a dad-of-two who was an officer with Northumbria Police – took his own life. And now, unheard recordings he made in the immediate aftermath of Moat’s rampage have come to light.

In the audio files, David, then 42, says: “Moat, he used to come all the time. I used to see his face, [it’s] like a death face. He has an open flap of skin from above his left eyebrow to the right hand side of his face.

“And as I look at him it opens up, and I can see inside. He’s that grey colour of death. I struggle to see faces but he’s the exception, yeah. I can see his face – as clear as day.”

Police launched a huge manhunt for Moat after the former bouncer gunned down his ex-girlfriend Samantha Stobbart and murdered her boyfriend Chris Brown. Minutes after ringing 999 to declare “war” on the police, the monster opened fire on David as he sat in his patrol car in Newcastle.

Moat, 39, shot himself dead a week later after police cornered him in Rothbury, Northumberland. In the months after the rampage, David, who was left with 34 pellets embedded in his skull, opened up to ghostwriter Tony Horne.

More than 200 hours of recordings made as Tony helped David