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Gosling to be charged with time-wasting over ‘killing’

By PA Mediapoint

BBC presenter Ray Gosling will be prosecuted for wasting police time over claims that he killed his gay lover.

The 70-year-old presenter confessed to smothering his lover as he lay in hospital dying of Aids during a programme broadcast in February.

But a Crown Prosecution Service spokeswoman said today there was “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.

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“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 confessed to murder during BBC East Midlands’ Inside Out programme.

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.

The CPS spokeswoman added that the inquiry followed remarks made in the February documentary and during interviews the next day.

She said the offence can be heard only by magistrates and the maximum sentence is six months in jail.

The full charge reads: “On 16/02/2010 at London caused wasteful employment of the police by knowingly making to Bill Turnbull a false report tending to show that an offence had been committed contrary to sec 5 (2) of the Criminal Law Act 1967.”

Speaking today after visiting a police station in Nottingham, Gosling said he was sorry if there had been any hurt caused to his lover, his lover’s brother or his family.

“I’m sorry if the police think they wasted their time. It was a small item on a regional TV programme Inside Out, in my country the East Midlands, to my people, with whom I have had an intimate relationship.

“It got out of hand that winter evening. I had had a week or two talking to people who had told me of the pacts they had had – some fulfilled with wives, lovers, husbands, who were dying in pain and some told me of pacts unfulfilled.

“I did not expect it to cause this fuss; I’m not joining any cause.”

He said his confession was a “moment” with an intimate audience on an intimate programme.

“I know what some people say, that I said what I did for publicity to promote a book I’m writing. That is absolutely not true; I haven’t finished the book yet.

“Some people say I did it to revive a dying career. I didn’t.

“I said it out of my heart, out of my feeling for people who had told me their intimate private stories and it got out of hand and I’m sorry.”

He also said he had co-operated with police entirely.

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