Tony Horne helped PC David Rathband write his book this past year. Here, on the year anniversary of the fateful day that David Rathband was shot in the face and blinded by Raoul Moat, Tony Horne guest writes.
On December 17th last year, PC David Rathband and I met for the first time when he came to my radio studio in Newcastle.
That’s not really true, is it?
Who, after all can forget this very day last year turning on the news on a sleepy Sunday morning to see David’s police car in pieces at the junction of the A1 and A69 on the outskirts of Newcastle?
‘Shit, I know where that is,’ I addressed the television screen.
And then one by one, pieces of information emerged.
In the days that followed, culminating in a televised week long manhunt in the little-known town of Rothbury, and the weeks and months after, David pieced together the remains of his life, in a very public rehabilitation, always with dignity, humour and incredible professionalism beyond the call.
Who can not remember seeing him break down at The Pride of Britain awards, only to find themselves in a similar state?
So, you see when I met him last December, I knew him already, and my God, after spending every day with him for the last six months in some capacity or another, we have become inseparable. Bloody hell, he’s now giving me counselling for all his nightmares he passed onto me during the writing of our book Tango 190!
It remains an incredible detail of the hunt for Raoul Moat that few people can remember poor Chris Brown whom Moat actually assassinated the night before he went hunting cops and blinded David. If you read the book, the trial of Moat’s accomplices will show you why I don’t hesitate to use that verb.
So, spare a thought today for Chris, David, Kath, Ash and Mia, and anyone, who for no reason other than fate, got caught in Moat’s slipstream.
Then do the decent thing and get yourself a copy of the book with all its absurd detail like Gazza and Ray Mears joining the hunt; the laughable story of Moat’s henchmen Ness and Awan passing themselves off as hostages, whilst casually buying chicken wraps from Subway; the spine-chilling shooting itself in all its detail; and of course the road to recovery and journey of discovery of what really went on that night as a morphine-laced hero awoke with no eyes to learn that no warning had been passed from the control room to the cops on the ground after Moat himself had rung 999.
The story will never leave your soul once you’ve read it, and that’s a good thing. Every day that you wake and remember pieces of it is a personal reminder that things are never that bad and you too can make it through.
That’s how I look at it anyway.
Tango 190 is available here to pre-order and is published tomorrow.