THE Burnley woman who sparked fury by setting up a Facebook page stating Raoul Moat was a legend says she bitterly regrets it.

Siobhan O'Dowd of Saltburn Street said she did not realise the outrage it would cause.

She took down the RIP Raoul Moat You Legend page, which had more than 40,000 members, on Thursday, after criticism from Prime Minister David Cameron.

However, the following another page, called 'R.I.P Raoul Moat!, describing Moat as a 'loving father and an all round canny lad', was set up by someone else and quickly attracted more than 10,000 fans.


Press Association video report on the page's removal

Moat, 37, shot himself last weekend in Rothbury, Northumberland, following a massive manhunt, which ended in a six-hour stand-off with armed police.

Ms O'Dowd said: “I just put it for me and my friends.

“I didn't think this would happen.

“I don't condone what he has done and don't agree one little bit about him shooting people.

“I just genuinely felt sorry for him because he asked for help but didn't get it and felt his whole life had been taken away from him when he was in jail.

The 21-year-old added: “I feel sorry for the families because it was an awful thing he did.”

Ms O'Dowd, who has a three-year-old daughter, said she regretted the name of the group.

She said: “I thought him hiding from the police was legendary.

“He did make the coppers look stupid and that is why a lot of people respected him.

“I don't class him as a legend. I got the name from other people's status but I wish I hadn't put it on now.”

Kath Rathband, the wife of injured Pc David Rathband, 42, condemned the members of the Facebook groups.

"Why anyone with any morals would think that Moat was a hero and a legend is beyond me," she told The Sun.

"My husband is a hero - and there is no comparison between my husband and Moat. David's bravery is astonishing. Moat was an out-and-out coward."

And the injured ex-girlfriend of Raoul Moat, Samantha Stobbart, criticised all who had joined the groups.

She told a Sunday newspaper: “They didn't see the real Raoul, they didn’t live with him.

"Raoul was a madman. How can they make these comments, saying he was a legend?

"It’s sick. The people who logged on to this site – well, it’s obscene."

Earlier last week, Bacup-born Metropolitan Police commissioner Sir Paul Stephenson labelled ghoulish tributes to Moat as 'extraordinarily disappointing'.

Sir Paul, the former Chief Constable of Lancashire Police, said: "People really do need to think about what precisely they are saying about our society and individuals in it."