Ray Gosling to face charges of wasting police time over claims he killed his lover

August 20, 2010

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Ray Gosling apparently confessed to smothering his lover as he lay in hospital dying of Aids during a programme broadcast in February.

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."

Confession

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.

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innocent bystander (20/08/2010 at 12:20)

OK he's made a couple of programmes in the past but he's lived off the State for years moaning about income tax and claiming!

Fool, on the hill (20/08/2010 at 12:30)

This episode sort of tarnishes everything he's done in the past doesn't it.

His last attempt at grabbing some media attention perhaps. Sad but .... PROSECUTE HIM!

minnie royle (20/08/2010 at 12:46)

having wasted time investigating this ,they are know going to waste more time and money prosecuting a 70 year old.

'96 and '01, The Double Whammy Years, AIOS (20/08/2010 at 14:46)

So we shouldn't prosecute all those 70 or over?

UmBongo UmBongo, Drinking in the Congo (20/08/2010 at 16:13)

What a silly comment minne royle.
In your world I would send my Gran out on an armed robbery as she will be untouchable.

lovinthebanter, Manchester (20/08/2010 at 17:30)

now to waste time for an offence of wasting time, can we not put current police officers before the judge for wasting police time on a daily basis? As for not prosecuting 70 year olds, the guy admitted to it but the police could not find evidence that he did? what happened at the time, was there suspicion of non natural causes as the reason for death.

JayTilzey, m29 (20/08/2010 at 15:00)

Minnie, the law applies to everyone. You don't get a free pass when you reach a certain age and this is a serious matter. The police were obliged to investigate a claim that a murder had taken place and now, if that has turned out to be false, are obliged to pursue a charge of wasting police time - if for no other reason than to deter future fantasists or attention-seekers from admitting to non-existent crimes. Had they NOT investigated, you can bet MEN readers would have been the first to complain.

lovinthebanter, Manchester (20/08/2010 at 17:34)

what if he did do it, or believes he did is this wasting police time. If you ring the police and say so just say someone being beaten up, or robbed or any other offence and they cannot find evidence of this when they come round does this automatically mean they should assume you are lying and so chage you with wasting time. You know the police won't do anything if you have your house broken into so if you ring them is this a case of wasting police time, and why can we not have police the other way round for wasting our time.

minnie royle (21/08/2010 at 00:24)

He didnt confess anything to the police, they chose to investigate..They are going after him for wasting public money by wasting even more money prosecuting him . Its a very vindictive move in my opinion

Ivor Rash, Oldham (21/08/2010 at 17:38)

lovinthebanter , it's not a case of the police not being able to find evidence regarding the "death" more that there is evidence that Gosling was lying. "a Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) spokeswoman said there is "sufficient evidence" to prove he was lying". It's similar to anyone making a false allegation that results in the police spending time and money, better used elsewhere, to investigate a non-event. Prosecution is done, I imagine, not only to punish the offender, but also to discourage others from doing the same. It sounds to me that Gosling has mental health problems, and would be better off in an appropriate facility. If this incident had occurred & the police had done nothing, I'm sure you can imagine the criticism they would have received & the comments on pages such as this.

d1v1s1onby0, Out of Delhi and back in Wigan. Pies oh how I have missed you (20/08/2010 at 15:56)

He didnt waste police time - he made a statement on TV, not to them.

The police chose to waste their own time by investigating the complaints that followed.

The Blair Witch Project was a film that was marketed as truth, but they were not prosecuted nor were the events investigated.

Time for the police to stop being stupid and not pursue a silly old man, whos only offense seems to now be not murdering someone

Rigger Mortice (21/08/2010 at 14:13)

"He didnt waste police time - he made a statement on TV, not to them."

And in so doing made a PUBLIC statement to the nation, or at least the TV audience. The police are duty bound to investigate an admission of murder when someone shouts it from the rooftops. They now claim to have enough evidence to prove that it wasn't murder so Gosling's claims have wasted their time. He didn't turn to them during the investigation and say that he was lying but, even if he did, they would still have had to investigate his original claims.

PW, Manchester (20/08/2010 at 21:26)

Sounds to me he was drawing attention to his cause, which obviously stemmed from his own painful experience. It's a sad story. It's life.

d1v1s1onby0, Out of Delhi and back in Wigan. Pies oh how I have missed you (21/08/2010 at 12:18)

So the cops cant actually prove he did it.
Their solution is to charge him with wasting police time.

The only way he can prove himself innocent of the charge is to provide proof he murdered someone.

Superb - can the police now just arrest anyone they suspect of a crime and charge them with wasting police time?

That way they dont need to solve crimes and the people they want locked up can just be put behind bars one way or another.

It like back in the good old days when you could dunk a witch and if she died then she was innocent.

Big Shrek (22/08/2010 at 19:09)

There are a number of points that your comments are extremely flawed.
1 He was arrested only after he claimed to have commited a murder. (What else would you expect the police to do?)
2 The police launched a thorough investigation to prove/ disprove the comments made by Gosling. Therein lies the waste of police time.
3. The completed file was passed to the CPS who reviewed and agreed there were no grounds to substantiate the claim.
4 The CPS directed the police to summons Gosling for the offence of wasting police time.

Now i suggest you have a word with youself and next time you want to take a cheap shot you have some grounds to back it up

Big Shrek (21/08/2010 at 16:32)

lock him up and throw away the key. what a pathetic way to get yourself in the public eye

Pandora (23/08/2010 at 00:10)

I hope they don´t put him in jail poor old guy, can´t they just tag him? They do serial offenders who commit serious crimes - which this isn´t one of them.

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