Facebook defies Cameron over Raoul Moat tribute page

Published by Jon Land for 24dash.com in Central Government and also in Communities

Facebook was on a collision course with David Cameron after it refused to take down a webpage set up in tribute to gunman Raoul Moat.

The Prime Minister earlier condemned those who had shown sympathy for the former nightclub doorman after he shot three people - killing one of them.

A picture of an increasingly paranoid father-of-three also emerged last night in tapes Moat recorded himself with social workers and police.

Moat said he wanted to see a psychiatrist in case he had a "problem" and wanted help.

Mr Cameron was urged by a Conservative MP to contact the social networking site to ask it to remove the RIP Raoul Moat group.

And Downing Street indicated that an official was likely to contact Facebook to highlight the Prime Minister's concerns with the company.

During an exchange in the Commons yesterday, Mr Cameron said: "It is absolutely clear that Raoul Moat was a callous murderer, full stop, end of story.

"I cannot understand any wave, however small, of public sympathy for this man.

"There should be sympathy for his victims and the havoc he wreaked in that community.

"There should be no sympathy for him."

Last night Facebook refused to take down the webpage saying many people would find some of the topics discussed on the site "distasteful", but added "that is not a reason in itself to stop a debate from happening".

In a statement the firm said: "Raoul Moat has dominated public debate over the last week and it is clear that there are lots of different and opposing opinions, both about Moat himself and about the investigation which surrounds him.

"These debates are being held in newspapers, online across the internet, between people in the pub, on the phone and at work.

"Facebook is a place where people can express their views and discuss things in an open way as they can and do in many other places, and as such we sometimes find people discussing topics others may find distasteful, however that is not a reason in itself to stop a debate from happening."

As well as tributes on Facebook, bouquets were left outside his former home in Fenham, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Flowers and cards transformed the riverside in Rothbury, Northumberland, where Moat shot himself in the early hours of Saturday morning, into a shrine.

The tributes were already condemned by Britain's most senior police officer, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson, as "extraordinarily disappointing".

And yesterday victim Samantha Stobbart's half-sister, Kelly Stobbart, 27, echoed the Prime Minister's comments.

"He's far from a legend," she told BBC Look North.

"How would these people think if it was a member of their family that he done it to?

"They wouldn't like it. They wouldn't be legend then, they'd be calling him all the names.

"How can someone who does that to an innocent person be a legend? It's just disgusting."

Moat went on the run after killing his 22-year-old ex-girlfriend's new lover Chris Brown, 29, and seriously injuring her.

The following day he blasted Pc David Rathband, 42, with a shotgun, blinding him.

Today the patrol car officer revealed he previously stopped Moat for a motoring offence.

Pc Rathband said he and a colleague pulled him over last year and confiscated his uninsured van.

He admitted feeling "intimidated" by the bodybuilding former nightclub doorman and feared he would "explode" when they seized his vehicle.

Moat was not charged in connection with the incident and his van was later returned.

On Tuesday, police arrested a further three men on suspicion of assisting an offender.

The men, aged 27, 34 and 45, were arrested at two addresses in Newcastle and one in Wallsend.

A total of 13 arrests have now been made in relation to the Moat inquiry.

The inquest into his death heard that police fired shotgun-mounted XRep Tasers at Moat, which were not approved for use by the Home Office.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission, which is investigating Northumbria Police's handling of the investigation, made an appeal yesterday to any witnesses to Moat's final hours on Friday night in Rothbury to get in touch.

The MP who raised the issue of the Facebook page with Mr Cameron repeated his call for the organisation to close it down, saying he thought it breached the social networking site's terms and conditions.

Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry) told BBC Radio 4's Today programme:
"Facebook has done things after public pressure in the past."

He said of comments on the Raoul Moat page: "Some of them are inciteful, inciting people to go and do horrible things to the police and to women.

"I think it's the job of politicians to say, 'Hold on a second, we have got some boundaries here'.

"We don't want to set laws on Facebook at all, but we do want people who are hosting these sites and other pages to have some responsibility.

"What I would say to Facebook is that within its terms and conditions on this site, that its incitement goes against its terms and conditions.

"Facebook's biggest demographic is in the 10 to 18-year-olds, so my two daughters can, through their Facebook, nip on to here and in no time at all see the most unbelievable comments.

"Facebook have always reacted to public opinion and I just wanted Facebook to know there was a huge amount of public anger."

Giving evidence today to the Commons Home Affairs Committee, Home Secretary Theresa May echoed Mr Cameron's comments that Moat was a "callous murderer" who did not deserve public sympathy.

"There does appear to be rather a lot of focus on that individual rather than on the victims of his crime," she said.

"Our thoughts and our concerns should be about the victims of the crime and I think we should be absolutely clear about the nature of the individual."

She said that it was open to Northumbria Police to apply to the Home Office for additional funding to cover the cost of the manhunt for Moat.