Moat "aggressive" towards council staff

Newcastle City Council have revealed they had "extensive contact" with Raoul Moat after the releasing of taped interviews between Moat and the council

In a statement, a spokesperson for the council says that Moat displayed aggression towards staff on more than one occasion and had agreed to a psychological and psychiatric assesment - although the psychiatric report was not produced as he failed to attend appointments. The statements reads:

"Newcastle City Council has had extensive contact with Raoul Moat across a range of council services over a number of years. The principle reason for the council's contact was in relation to the safety and wellbeing of two of his children.

"We can confirm that in the course of care proceedings the need to understand further the potential impact of Mr Moat's aggressive behaviour on the welfare of the children was identified."

Moat agreed to a psychological and a psychiatric assessment being carried out in relation to the care proceedings and the children's future. However, he failed to attend the agreed appointment for the psychiatric assessment, with the psychologist's report remaining a confidential court document. The statement continued:

"Throughout his contact with the council Mr Moat has displayed aggression towards council staff on a number of occasions across a range of services. "

In fact, after the initial shooting incident, a number of council offices were closed to ensure the protection of staff and the public.

The council confirmed that they were aware that Moat recorded some of the meetings between them, but they did not know the recordings were in the hands of the media until just before the evening news bulletins.

The controversial Facebook page, which over 37 thousand people liked, as disappeared from the social networking site. The page was taken down by the owner of the page, after Facebook announced that they didn't take it off the site.