London: A veteran British broadcaster was
arrested on suspicion of murder after admitting he smothered
to death an ex-lover who had AIDS, police said on Wednesday.
Ray Gosling made the confession in a television
programme aired this week, saying he killed the unnamed man as
he lay seriously ill in hospital "in the early period of AIDS"
-- likely to be during the 1980s.
A spokeswoman for Nottinghamshire Police in central
England, said officers "this morning arrested a 70-year-old
Nottingham man on suspicion of murder following comments on
the BBC`s Inside Out programme on Monday evening."
The 70-year-old`s confession comes amid debate in
Britain about so-called mercy killings, or whether people with
terminal illnesses be allowed to commit assisted suicide.
In the television programme, on the issue of assisted
suicide, Gosling told how he took his lover`s life.
"In a hospital one hot afternoon, the doctor said,
`There`s nothing we can do`, and he was in terrible, terrible
pain," he said. "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."
Last year, the Director of Public Prosecutions for
England and Wales, Keir Starmer, published interim guidelines
on when assisted suicide cases should be prosecuted.
These said that while there were some factors which
could weigh against the chances of someone being prosecuted,
such as the victim asking for help, assisted suicide was still
a criminal offence.
PTI
