Director of UK Taser firm found dead

The director of operations of Pro-Tect Systems, which supplied police with the Tasers used during the stand-off with gunman Raoul…

The director of operations of Pro-Tect Systems, which supplied police with the Tasers used during the stand-off with gunman Raoul Moat, has been found dead.

Peter Boatman's company, which supplied the Tasers used by police in the stand-off with gunman Raoul Moat, had its licence revoked earlier this week.

The company said it was understood Mr Boatman had taken his own life.

Home Secretary Theresa May revoked Pro-Tect Systems's licence to supply the weapons after it "breached its licence by supplying X12 Tasers direct to police that were only available for supply to the Home Office Science and Development branch".

Armed police fired two Tasers at Moat in an "effort to stop him taking his own life" at the Riverside park area in Rothbury, Northumberland, in the early hours of July 10th, an inquest at Newcastle Civic Centre was told.

The stand-off with the former nightclub doorman brought to an end one of the biggest manhunts in British history, triggered when Moat shot his former girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart (22), killed her new boyfriend, Chris Brown (29), and blinded Pc David Rathband (42).

But the precise sequence of events regarding the discharge of the XRep Tasers in relation to Moat firing his sawn-off shotgun has not been established and is under investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC).