Presenter names ‘mercy killing’ lover

BBC presenter Ray Gosling disclosed yesterday that he has told police the name of the lover he has confessed to killing.

Gosling, 70, was arrested on suspicion of murder last week after revealing in a TV programme that he smothered a former partner as he lay in a hospital bed dying of Aids.

Following repeated questioning by detectives over 30 hours in custody he was released on bail until April, but only after naming the man he killed.

Gosling told the Nottingham Evening Post yesterday: “If I’d not told them who it was, I’d still be locked up now.”

Gosling, a freelance TV and radio presenter from Nottingham, broke down during his shock confession to BBC East Midlands Inside Out programme last week.

He said: “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 told the Nottingham Evening Post: “I don’t regret saying what I did on the television. The BBC didn’t use me. They told me the risks of doing it.”