HIS MESSAGES on Twitter had raised concerns. In the days before he took his own life at his home in Northumbria on Wednesday afternoon, David Rathband posted a series of tweets, each bleaker than the one before.
On Monday, before he flew back from Australia, where he had gone for medical treatment, the policeman had written: “Flying back on Monday and will say goodbye to my children.” A second read: “RIP PC Rathband.”
In July 2010, the father-of-two had been shot at close range by Raoul Moat just a day after the former bouncer had shot and injured his former partner, Samantha Stobbart, and killed her then partner, Chris Brown.
The manhunt that followed was Britain’s largest for decades.
Rathband, sitting in a police car at a roundabout, was grievously injured when Moat shot him in the face and shoulder. He lived by pretending to be dead, but he could not live with his injuries.
Moat, who eventually killed himself in Rothbury, north of Newcastle, after a week-long search, had called 999 just 12 minutes before, threatening to kill the first police officer he found. Within the hour, he rang back to claim responsibility, warning that he would kill more.
Last December, PC Rathband spoke about his hopes to have his sight returned to him partially with the use of US-designed technology that helps the blind to visualise objects using hundreds of electrodes on the tongue.
“Anything would be better than what I’ve got now. It is incredibly frustrating being in the dark all day,” he told the Newcastle Journal. “I can’t see the new house I’ve moved into. I used to be a builder and I’m having to pay people to do all the work for me.”
He had moved because of difficulties in his marriage. Last August, police were called to the family home in Cramlington, though no charges against him were brought. In November, he announced on Twitter that he and his wife, Kath, were separating.
In one of his final postings, PC Rathband said that a last attempt to save the marriage had failed and that Mrs R, as he described her, wanted only to be friends. In another message, the 42- year-old said he had “lost my sight, my job, my wife and my marriage”.
He later deleted his RIP posting, though not before concern about his mental state had been flagged to Northumbria police: “Are you aware of David Rathband’s tweets?? Doesn’t sound very good at all,” warned one user.
Police went to his home in Blyth at 7pm on Wednesday night after “a report of concern” for his welfare was received: “Officers attended the scene alongside the ambulance service and he was found inside. He was declared dead at the scene.”
Northumbria Police chief constable Sue Sim said of Rathband: “David showed outstanding bravery . . . He was a dedicated officer who acted in the best traditions of the . . . service.”
However, speaking on breakfast TV, former Scotland Yard commander John O’Connor spoke for many officers: “No amount of counselling or compensation can give you back what you’ve lost and that’s the bottom line of it.”