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Prosecuting Homicide

Murder and manslaughter are two of the offences that constitute homicide.

Manslaughter can be committed in one of three ways:

  1. killing with the intent for murder but where there is provocation, diminished responsibility or a suicide pact.
  2. conduct that was grossly negligent given the risk of death, and resulted in death.
  3. conduct, taking the form of an unlawful act involving a danger of some harm, that caused death.

With some exceptions, the crime of murder is committed, where a person:

  • of sound mind and discretion (i.e. sane):
  • unlawfully kills (i.e. not self-defence or other justified killing)
  • any reasonable creature (human being)
  • in being (born alive and breathing through its own lungs)
  • under the Queen's Peace
  • with intent to kill or cause grievous bodily harm.

There are other specific homicide offences, for example, infanticide, causing death by dangerous driving, and corporate manslaughter.

Find out more about prosecuting homicide

Home » News Centre » Press Releases » Ray Gosling admits wasting police time over TV confession

Ray Gosling admits wasting police time over TV confession

14/09/2010

The guilty plea today by Ray Gosling shows he now accepts that he put Nottinghamshire Police to a lot of unnecessary effort investigating a fake allegation of murder, said Crown Prosecution Service senior lawyer Simon Clements.

Video text transcript

Mr Clements, head of the CPS Special Crime Division, said: "As a result of Mr Gosling's confession on television that he killed a former lover who was dying of Aids, the police clearly had grounds to suspect him of murder, a crime of unique gravity. They also had a corresponding duty to investigate the deaths of those associated with him.

"The investigation has involved a total of 32 members of police and support staff spending more than 1,800 hours looking into Mr Gosling's false report. Friends and relatives whose loved ones died many years ago in desperately sad circumstances have been caused considerable distress by Mr Gosling's false claim and the consequent investigation.

"After nearly six months of extensive enquiries, Nottinghamshire Police established that there was sufficient evidence to provide a realistic prospect of proving that Mr Gosling's confession was false. The CPS can confirm that, other than a retracted confession, there is no evidence to suggest that Mr Gosling killed anyone.

"Our decision to charge Mr Gosling with wasting police time was clearly justified, and by his guilty plea today Mr Gosling is now taking responsibility for the consequences of his actions."

Ends

Notes to Editors

  1. Media enquiries by phone: 020 3357 0906. Out of hours pager: 07699 781926.
  2. The television programme during which Mr Gosling made his remarks was a documentary for the BBCs Inside Out series broadcast on 15 February 2010. He repeated his remarks during interviews the next day, including on BBC televisions Breakfast programme in an interview with Bill Turnbull.
  3. Details of the offence as summonsed: On 16/02/2010 at London caused wasteful employment of the police by knowingly making to Bill Turnbull a false report tending to show that an offence had been committed. Contrary to sec 5(2) of the Criminal Law Act 1967.  The offence may only be heard at the magistrates court and carries a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment.
  4. Mr Gosling was sentenced 90 days in jail suspended for 12 months and ordered to pay £200 in costs.
  5. The DPP has set out what the public can expect from the CPS in the Core Quality Standards document published in March 2010. It can be seen at http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/core_quality_standards/index.html 
  6. The CPS consists of 42 Areas in total, each headed by a Chief Crown Prosecutor (CCP). These are organised into 12 Groups, plus CPS London, each overseen by Group Chair, a senior CCP. In addition there are four specialised national divisions: Central Fraud Group, Counter-Terrorism, Organised Crime and Special Crime. A telephone service, CPS Direct, provides out-of-hours advice and decisions to police officers across England and Wales.
  7. The CPS employs around 8,316 people and prosecuted 982,731 cases with a conviction rate of 86.8% in the magistrates courts and 80.7% in the Crown Court in 2009-20010. Further information can be found on our website: www.cps.gov.uk 
  8. The CPS, together with ACPO and media representatives, has developed a Protocol for the release of prosecution material to the media.  This sets out the type of prosecution material that will normally be released, or considered for release, together with the factors we will take into account when considering requests.  The Protocol is published on our website at: http://www.cps.gov.uk/publications/agencies/mediaprotocol.html