Monkseaton shootings

The Monkseaton shootings occurred on 30 April 1989 in Monkseaton, Tyne & Wear, England, when Robert Sartin killed one man and left 16 other people injured during a 20-minute shooting spree.^[1][2]

Sartin, a 22-year-old clerk, took his father's double-barrelled shotgun and climbed into a car outside his parents’ home at around 11.40am. Witnesses described how Sartin fired indiscriminately at people.^[3]

Judith Rhodes was driving along nearby Pykerley Road. As she drove along she noticed a figure dressed entirely in black. She then noticed the double-barrelled shotgun that the man was pointing at her. The first shot shattered the windscreen while the second shot struck her hand; the man then walked calmly away.

Lorraine Noble, 39, was then shot as she fled from Sartin on Windsor Road. She had been chatting to Frank Roberts when they spotted the gun. Lorraine ran to her house but was shot and badly injured; Frank threw himself to the ground.

Then Joan Kernaghan, her husband James and a neighbour William Dack were all shot at as they stood chatting in the street. Kenneth Mackintosh was then shot and killed on Windsor Road; once up close the gunman shot his victim twice in the back, killing him. Robert Wilson, 38, was looking for his girlfriend; Sartin shot him in the face and back. Robert was peppered with 60 pellets, 50 of which could not be removed.

The next victim was Kathleen Lynch, who was looking out through her window. Sartin fired, injuring her shoulder. On Eastfield Avenue Sartin then shot at Brian Thomas, 39, shooting him from his bike.

Vera Burrows, 75, spoke with the killer at her door, on Eastfield Avenue, and asked him what he was doing. He replied, "It’s me. I am killing people. I am going to kill you." But when he pointed the gun at her he continued: “Oh, you are old. I won’t kill you,” and walked away.

William Reynolds was shot in the back and neck. Husband and wife Peter and Jean Burgon were the next victims, when Sartin shot them in their car. Kathleen Myley, 64, was then shot after she left church. Ernest Carter was shot in the back of the legs. Then Roy Brown was injured when Sartin fired through the windscreen of his car. Jean Miller, 69, was in her garden on Brantwood Avenue when Sartin shot her in the stomach.

After firing his final shot Sartin got into his car and drove to Whitley Bay. Unarmed police officer Danny Herdman was in an unmarked police car and had heard a radio call about the shootings. He saw Sartin's car and followed it, travelling at 60 mph.^[4]

Sartin parked in a Whitley Bay car park and emerged from the car without his gun. Herdman then arrested him.^[2]

Sartin was charged with the murder of Kenneth Mackintosh in Windsor Road, Monkseaton, and 16 counts of attempted murder.^[5][2] In May 1996, he appeared at Durham Crown Court where he pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity and he was subsequently detained indefinitely at a secure mental unit.^[1]

• List of massacres in Great Britain
• List of rampage killers
• List of mass shootings in the United Kingdom

• Cawthorne, Nigel; Tibballs, Geoff (1994) [1993]. Killers: The Ruthless Exponents of Murder. London: Boxtree. ISBN 0-752-20850-0.
• Lane, Brian (1995). Chronicle of 20th Century Murder. Wiltshire: Select Editions. ISBN 978-0-425-14649-1.