Brody's Notes... Veteran BBC TV & Radio Broadcaster Confesses On Air To Smothering His Lover

Ray Gosling        Inside Out     Photo by the BBC News

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) Feb 16 | British viewers of the BBC Inside Out programme, were stunned when veteran broadcaster Ray Gosling, shown walking through a graveyard weeping, confessed to having assisted in the death of a former lover. In the piece that aired yesterday, Gosling said; 

"I killed someone once... He was a young chap, he’d been my lover and he got Aids," he told the viewers, in a feature on end-of-life decisions.

"In 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.”

Mr Gosling did not reveal the name of the lover but said that it was a secret that he had kept for "quite a long time."  He claimed that he and the young man had made a pact that he would help him to die if he was in intolerable pain and could not recover.

"He was in terrible pain, I was there and I saw it. It breaks you into pieces... When you love someone, it is difficult to see them suffer.” 

According to a spokesperson for the BBC;

 "We were not aware of Mr Gosling's comments until the BBC Inside Out programme was shown." He added, "The BBC is under no legal obligation to refer the matter to the police in these circumstances."

This contrasts sharply with revelations from British police sources that the BBC was aware of the contents of the show as it was filmed in early November of 2009. The police did acknowledge that the BBC was cooperating with the investigation which was launched by the Nottinghamshire Police after Gosling confessed on air to smothering his lover.
For his part when asked about the police investigation in an interview with the BBC News this morning, Gosling was quoted as saying;

"They can try. I'm not going to tell them anything. I'm not going to tell them anything. That was the pact. We had a pact."

Assisted suicide is illegal in Britain under the 1961 Suicide Act, and is punishable by up to 14 years in jail. The law has been challenged after a number of high profile cases of mercy killings.

Activists on both sides of the issue have already weighed in on Gosling's confession. Dr Peter Saunders, of Care Not Killing, said that it was a myth that patients needed to die in terrible pain, and it would be a tragedy if Mr Gosling's story fueled that myth.

"The story that Mr Gosling had described was not one of helping someone to die but of murder, Saunders added. "On the basis of the testimony given, legally speaking, this is not a case of assisted suicide – helping someone to kill himself – but of murder –actively ending the life of another person."

Sarah Wootton, president of the UK organisation Dignity in Dying, said:

“This case yet again demonstrates that this is a real and present problem, which can affect us all. The law is out of step with what society needs and wants. Crucially, Ray Gosling’s loved one was terminally ill and clearly asked for help to die when he was suffering unbearably at the end of his life. This illustrates a need for formal assisted dying legislation to help those who want choice at the end of life, as well as protect people who may be vulnerable to coercion."

Asked why he had confessed, the broadcaster said that other people's stories in the programme had impelled him to be truthful.

"Everybody else had revealed themselves to me, and I felt I had to reveal myself to them," he said. "I know that if there is a heaven he will be looking down and he will be proud of me," he said. "I don't do worries. I did what I did from my heart. In my country, for my people, in my way. They expect that from me. I would have felt a traitor if I hadn't."