Was PM Too Quick To Brand Raoul Moat A Callous Murderer?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-10636086
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-10641225

Like the law-abiding majority of people in this country, I was horrified and upset at the brutal shooting of three innocent people by Raoul Moat.

The fact that the days he spent on the run and evading capture ended with him killing himself, will be of no comfort to his three victims and their loved ones.  Raoul Moat will never face justice in court.

I also cannot condone the messages of support that Moat has received on Facebook from people who did not know him in an attempt to propel him to some kind of hero-statuts.

David Cameron used PMQs to roundly condemn the pages on Facebook that have been set up in Moat's memory.

However is the Prime Minister really right to label Raoul Moat a 'callous murderer?'

A picture is emerging of a man with very serious mental health problems and paranoid tendancies who may not have received the attention from social services that he required. Indeed Raoul Moat himself repeatedly acknowledged that his difficulties.

And yet as his brother Angus has suggested, the appropriate help was not forthcoming and had Moat had the right support and the symptoms of his mental instability been spotted sooner, the tragic events that unfolded might been avoided.

Since Moat was already known to social services, clearly not enough attention was paid to his mental health needs.  This is a very serious failing on the part of all authorities concerned.

Mr Cameron's comments are certainly not helpful.  Such flippant remarks might send the right political signals to the Tory grass-roots.

However they do very little to address the very serious social and political issues that this very sad case raises.