Uncle 'could have stopped' Moat death

The uncle of Raoul Moat believes he could have talked him out of killing himself if he had been allowed to speak to him.

Charlie Alexander, 72, said he called police during his nephew's six-hour stand off and offered to go to the field in Rothbury, Northumberland, where Moat was cornered. "I think it was about 11pm when they said they were having a regular rapport with him, the negotiators, and he'd accepted food and drink," he said.

"In my experience that means he's stopped and he's thinking about giving himself up. It just didn't happen. I rang up at 11pm and said that if they sent a car I would go up and talk to him and bring him back to their lines. They just said they'd get back to me but nobody came back to me at all."

Mr Alexander's late wife Barbara was Moat's mother Josephine's sister and he said he was upset at the former nightclub doorman's death. "I'm a bit upset. Its being investigated but I am still upset that I couldn't go and bring him back in," he said.

"They said it might be because I would be at risk but they were only 20ft away from him. I could just have stood behind them policeman and talked to him. He would have been in front of us and I would have talked him back.

"He was asking for us. He said he had no family and he had no dad. If I went up he would have had someone that loves him and it would possibly have turned him that little bit that he needed to, to say 'I'm going to give myself up'."

Mr Alexander, who lives in Gateshead, added: "I am still in a state of shock to tell you the truth. I cannot believe that Raoul's not here, he's gone."