Police probe Aids mercy killing claims

Detectives are to launch an investigation after a BBC presenter told TV viewers that he carried out a mercy killing on a former lover who was suffering from Aids, said police.

Ray Gosling, 70, revealed that he had smothered the unnamed partner as he lay in hospital "in terrible, terrible pain".

Nottinghamshire Police said the force had not been aware of the issue until the broadcaster made his revelation on BBC East Midlands' Inside Out programme. "We are now liaising with the BBC and will investigate the matter."

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The BBC said it would "co-operate fully" with a police investigation. Mr Gosling said he was not "making a cause" of assisted dying but said there was a case for changing the law.

He said later: "Sometimes doctors do it on their own. Sometimes people do it on their own.

"And if it happens to a lover or friend of yours, a husband, a wife, and I hope it doesn't, but when it does sometimes you have to do brave things."

Speaking on the 30-minute Inside Out programme, Mr Gosling said: "Maybe this is the time to share a secret that I have kept for quite a long time.

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"I killed someone once... he was a young chap, he'd been my lover and he got Aids."

Strolling through a graveyard for a segment of the show about death, he broke down as he recalled the day he took his lover's life.

He said: "In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said 'there's nothing we can do', and he was in terrible, terrible pain. I picked up the pillow and smothered him until he was dead."

Gosling, a freelance presenter of hundreds of radio and TV documentaries, said he had no regrets about his actions.

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