The sick crimes and life of Raoul Moat - and his disturbing legacy

Armed with a sawn-off shotgun, Raoul Moat arrived at a house where his ex-girlfriend Sam Stobbart was staying in the early hours of Saturday, July 3, 2010 . Seven days later after shooting three people, including Stobbart, and going on the run, the bodybuilder took his own life following a six-hour stand-off with police.

It marked the grisly end of one of the biggest manhunts in recent history. As a new ITV drama prepares to tell the story of the hunt for Moat, the M.E.N. looks back at his life and crimes - and his disturbing legacy.

"There have always been some who have hero-worshipped criminals whether it is Ned Kelly, Al Capone or Billy the Kid. There has always been a section of society who hate the police as the symbol of what they see as an unfair society or just because they get in the way of their criminal business."

Then Greater Manchester Police Chief Constable Sir Peter Fahy wrote those words in his blog in September 2010, two months after the death of Raoul Moat. In the 13 years since, Moat's infamy, like that of fellow killer Dale Cregan, has only grown.

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It's a disturbing legacy that's seen Moat become something of a cause célèbre for the violent and damaged - and for those who, in Sir Peter's words, 'hate the police'. Earlier this year a Lancashire man was jailed after threatening to 'kill a police woman like Dale Cregan and Raoul Moat'.

In 2015 a gun-obsessed 33-year-old from North Wales was given a 12 month prison sentence after claiming he was planning to ambush police in a bid to become the next Cregan or Moat.

And in July last year a local council in Merseyside was forced to