Police charge BBC presenter with time-wasting over 'killing'
BBC presenter Ray Gosling will be prosecuted for wasting police time over claims that he killed his gay lover.
The 70-year-old presenter apparently confessed to smothering his lover as he lay in hospital dying of Aids during a programme broadcast in February.
But a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokeswoman said there is “sufficient evidence” to prove he was lying.
Helen Allen of the CPS said Nottinghamshire Police have been informed Gosling should be prosecuted for wasting police time.
She said: “Mr Gosling was arrested by Nottinghamshire Police on suspicion of murder following his appearance in a television programme in which he confessed to killing a former lover who was dying of Aids.
“He was interviewed several times by the police and detectives conducted an extensive investigation into the allegation.
“The police were in contact with the CPS during the investigation and a file was passed to the Special Crime Division on July 28.
“The police established that there was sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of proving that Mr Gosling’s confession was false and asked the CPS to consider whether he should be prosecuted for wasting police time, given the amount of work they had to carry out to establish what had happened.
“After careful consideration of all the evidence I decided that Mr Gosling should be prosecuted for wasting police time and advised the police to obtain a summons to that effect.
“The summons for him to appear before Nottingham magistrates on September 14 was served on Mr Gosling when he answered his police bail today.”
Gosling apparently confessed to murder during BBC East Midlands' 'Inside Out' programme broadcast in February.
He was arrested by Nottinghamshire Police and questioned for more than 30 hours on suspicion of murder.
During the programme, Gosling said he smothered his partner because he was “in terrible, terrible pain”.
In the shock confession in the 30-minute show about death, Gosling broke down, saying: “I killed someone once. He was a young chap, he’d been my lover and he got Aids.
“In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said ’There’s nothing we can do’, and he was in terrible, terrible pain.
“I said to the doctor ’Leave me just for a bit’, and he went away. I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead.
“The doctor came back and I said ’He’s gone’. Nothing more was ever said.”
Gosling, a freelance presenter of hundreds of radio and TV documentaries, added: “We’d got an agreement, if it got worse, the pain, and nobody could do anything.
“He was in terrible pain, I was there and I saw it. It breaks you into pieces.”
Gosling said he was not “making a cause” of assisted dying but said there was a case for changing the law.
