RAOUL Moat was worried about being hit by police stun gun weapons during a stand-off, his inquest heard yesterday.

As officers pointed conventional rifles and Taser weapons at him, the fugitive expressed concern about being stunned and then arrested, the hearing at Newcastle Crown Court was told.

Moat, 37, shot himself in the head with his sawn-off shotgun and police fired two Taser rounds at him at the climax of a six hour stand-off in Rothbury, Northumberland, in July last year.

He had sparked a huge manhunt after shooting his former girlfriend, Samantha Stobbart, killing her new boyfriend, Chris Brown, 29, and later blinding unarmed PC David Rathband.

Sergeant David Hudson, an armed officer at the scene who relayed information to superiors, agreed that Moat was worried about being hit by stun guns.

He said: “My understanding was he did not want to get hit by a Taser because he did not want to be arrested.”

John Beggs, for Northumbria Police, asked: “He was aware of what would happen?”

Sgt Hudson said: “He falls over and we arrest him.’’ He said he expected in the first half hour of the stand-off that Moat would shoot himself or force officers to kill him by pointing his weapon at them.

However, he said that after those 30 minutes passed, he became a “quite rational, polite man”.

He believed Moat calmed down after being taken by surprise by police on the banks of the River Coquet, and said: “I firmly believe he did not expect to be found. I think he got cornered when he did not expect to.”

He said the officers, who used new X12 shotgun-style Tasers, received five minutes of training on how to use them that night.

He told the inquest that ideally they would have trained been in a classroom, with time to practise on the range, and said: “It was this (the X12) or nothing. This was the best we could do.”

The jury has heard conventional handgun-style Tasers could not be used because they did not have the required range.

The inquest continues today