BBC PRESENTER CHARGED WITH WASTING POLICE TIME

A BBC presenter in the UK, who claimed to have killed his lover in a mercy killing, is to be charged with wasting police time.

Ray Gosling (70) was arrested on suspicion of murder in February after apparently admitting on BBC’s Inside Out programme that he smothered his former lover, who was dying and in great pain, with a pillow.

At the time, he said that he refused to disclose the man’s identity in order to respect his privacy.

Now it’s been revealed that the claim – which caused an international media frenzy – was false and was apparently based on stories that other people had told Gosling during his research for the programme.

The police announced on Friday that “there was sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of proving that Mr Gosling’s confession was false” and he would “be prosecuted for wasting police time”.

The veteran broadcaster apologised for the furore.

“I know what some people say, that I said what I did for publicity to promote a book I’m writing. That is absolutely not true, I haven’t finished the book yet. Some people say I did it to revive a dying career. I didn’t. I said it out of my heart, out of my feeling for people who had told me their intimate private stories and it got out of hand and I’m sorry,” he told reporters.

Gosling is scheduled to appear in court in mid-September to face the charges.