A PROGRAMME documenting the manhunt for killer Raoul Moat will air this month.

The Hunt for Raoul Moat will be told through the eyes of those who sought to bring him to justice.

After being released from Durham prison in 2010, Moat targeted former girlfriend Samantha Stobbart and her new partner Chris Brown, killing him and leaving her with life-threatening injuries.

He then also shot PC David Rathband as he finished his shift in a marked patrol car, leaving him blind. PC Rathband later took his own life.

Moat then led police on Britan's biggest manhunt.

The search saw armed police surround remote outbuildings near Elsdon as the net tightened on the gunman days after a former partner was spirited away from her home in Prudhoe and placed under police protection.

He was eventually found in Rothbury, where, after a six-hour stand-off, he turned the gun on himself.

The drama is written by novelist and screenwriter Kevin Sampson for ITV1.

He said: "The hunt for Raoul Moat gripped me from the start as it was the first such case to be covered ‘live’ by the new, 24-hour news channels in the UK.

“Even then, it interested me that Moat was being portrayed by some as a ‘legend’ in spite of the brutality of his crimes.

“Violence against women remains rife and is all too often accompanied by a victim-blaming agenda.

“I hope this drama will go some way to condemning this narrative.”

The three-part series will start on April 16.