BBC presenter charged over fake “mercy killing”
Veteran TV presenter Ray Gosling has been told today that he faces charges of “wasting police time” after falsely claiming in a BBC documentary about “mercy killings” that he’d killed his lover more than 20 years ago.
Broadcast on the Inside Out programme in the East Midlands region in February a tearful Gosling turned to the camera and “confessed” to smothering a lover who was dying of aids in hospital.
Spinning a yarn about a terminal prognosis from the doctor, Gosling allegedly said: ‘Leave me just for a bit’ prior to picking up a pillow and smothering him “until he was dead.”
Describing the act as a “private pact” Gosling only gave police the identity of the alleged victim after being held in custody for 30 hours stating: “If I’d not told them who it was, I’d still be locked up now,” a subsequent six month investigation found no evidence to support the claim however.
The fanciful tale is thought to have been an attempt by Gosling to resurrect a fading career which had seen the veteran presenter reduced to living in a one room squat.
He faces six months in jail if found guilty but the BBC have also come under fire for failing to verify Gosling’s claim prior to broadcast.