A veteran BBC presenter is being investigated by police officers after he made an on-air confession to killing his terminally ill lover.
Watch Ray Gosling’s confession
Ray Gosling’s admission, broadcast on BBC East Midlands’ Inside Out programme yesterday, is the latest in a series of high profile assisted suicide programmes broadcast by the BBC.
However, pro-life groups have questioned why the corporation didn’t contact the police when Mr Gosling first made the admission during filming.
Dr Peter Saunders from the campaign group Care Not Killing, said: “It’s rather bizarre this was filmed more than two months ago and the BBC has been sitting on it and hasn’t informed the police and the case hasn’t been investigated.”
A spokesman for the broadcaster said: “The BBC is under no legal obligation to refer the matter to the police in these circumstances.”
During the documentary Mr Gosling confessed to smothering his homosexual lover as he lay seriously ill in hospital during “the early period of AIDS”.
He has since insisted that he has no regrets about his actions.
Mr Gosling has defended his action saying “We had a pact – he said if the pain gets bad and if nothing can be done, don’t let him linger on.”
But Dr Saunders said: “At the moment all we have is Ray’s word there was a pact and it wasn’t clear from his description whether his lover even wanted to be killed or asked to be.
“It’s not up to us as the viewing public, on the basis of one very brief selective testimony, to draw conclusions on what might be a very complex case.
“That’s why it’s so important all these cases be fully investigated so the true facts can come out.”
The BBC’s decision to broadcast Ray Gosling’s confession is likely to fuel suspicion over the BBC’s ongoing coverage of assisted suicide and euthanasia.
Last week it was revealed that over 20 MPs have now signed an Early Day Motion which accuses the BBC of conducting a “multi-million pound campaign” to promote euthanasia.
The MPs also accused the broadcaster of showing a “persistent bias” in favour of euthanasia.
The criticism followed a decision by the BBC to broadcast two programmes which promoted assisted suicide on the same night.
Earlier this month Dr John Sentamu, the Archbishop of York, said that we must ignore celebrity campaigns for assisted suicide, and instead listen to the voices of disabled people and the silent majority.
The Archbishop said: “I would rather listen to the voices of disabled people than to the voices of celebrities or the voices of 1,000 people in an opinion poll.”