BBC Announcer's On-Air Confession: I Smothered My AIDS-Stricken Partner

BBC viewers were startled this week when longtime television host Ray Gosling revealed in a pre-recorded segment that he had smothered his partner with a pillow as the man lay wracked with end-stage AIDS. Gosling was narrating a program about euthanasia. He didn't say who the man was or when the incident occurred.

The BBC had not alerted the police in advance to the confession, which it is understood was recorded last November. The police spokesman said: "We were not aware of Mr Gosling's comments until the BBC Inside Out programme was shown. "We are now liaising with the BBC and will investigate the matter." Mr Gosling wept as he made his confession while walking through a graveyard. “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 a 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."

Assisted suicide is illegal in the UK and is subject to a lengthy prison term. Gosling says that his partner's doctor had hinted to him what should be done.

Here's is Gosling's heartwrenching confession.

The below interview was done after Gosling's program aired.

RELATED: I have known several men who have had to take this terrible action, although not in the manner described above. In all cases, it was pre-agreed upon with their partners. In all cases, it was the loving, merciful, and right thing to do.