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Stephen Gately died of natural causes, post-mortem reveals
By Ellen Widdup, Evening Standard Last updated at 15:09pm on 13.10.09Boyzone star Stephen Gately died of natural causes, a court official on the island of Majorca said today.
The official said a post mortem had established that the singer suffered a pulmonary oedema, an accumulation of fluid on the lungs.
This would appear to confirm speculation that Mr Gately, who died after a night on the town on the island, choked on his vomit.
At a brief court hearing in the island's capital Palma, a judge said that Mr Gately's body could be taken home.
The 33-year-old was found dead on Saturday. He was discovered on the sofa in his apartment in Port Andratx after a night out partying with his partner Andrew Cowles.
The news came as the Bulgarian man who was at Stephen Gately's home on the night he died has spoken of the moment he found the pop star “pale and cold”.
Upset: Georgi Dochev (right), who met the Boyzone singer in a club
Georgi Dochev, who met the Boyzone singer and his partner Andy Cowles in a Majorca gay nightclub, said he had been suffering from insomnia since finding the body.
He discovered Gately, 33, hunched in a “prayer position” on the sofa shortly after 1pm on Saturday in the £1 million holiday apartment in Port Andratx.
A post-mortem examination will be carried out today but investigators say it may be days before toxicology reports reveal how much Gately had drunk and whether he had drugs in his system.
Mr Dochev, who lives near the island capital Palma, said: “I almost have not slept since this happened. Stephen was white and very cold when I found him. I am still nervous and really upset.”
The 25-year-old refused to comment on claims that he had spent the night in bed with Mr Cowles, 32 — Gately's civil partner of three years.
He said he had no wish to heighten Mr Cowles's grief by going into detail about the hours leading up to Gately's death. “All I will say is that there's a lot of rubbish being printed,” he said.
Mr Dochev, a regular at the Black Cat, the gay club in Palma where the trio met, said he tried to comfort Mr Cowles as he wept and held Gately's body after trying to revive him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Friends of the couple said Mr Cowles was struggling to cope. He reportedly said: “I feel that my life is over. We have had wilder nights out in Dublin and this was nothing out of the ordinary. If only I had gone in to check him.”
He is hoping to take Gately's body back to his home in Dublin for a funeral at the end of the week. Today police refused to comment on the investigation.
Reader views (6)
He drank himself into a stupor and died. It's a normal way to go for lots of bingers. Sad but that's how it goes. His family deserve to be left alone by the press.
- Fred, London
'natural deaths'...jimi hendrix/ jim morrison/ kurt cobain/ elvis presley?
- Nigel.Ricketts@Networkrail.Co.Uk, crowborough england
Jayne, London - have you ever seen anyone choking to death before?
This guys would probably have wondered round the room gasping for breath before he collapsed and died in that position.
As a former Army sergeant, we were instructed that any drunk soldier in detention had to be monitored constantly and not just left alone and we had to ensure that he slept in recovery position and not with his face upwards.
- P Bonavia, London
How natural can it be to die at 33 in a praying position on your sofa? Something stinks here
- Jayne, London
Neil (London): did you bother to read this piece? It will be some time before tests show how much alcohol he had in his body: you can't assume that "he drank to the point of unconciousness". That may or may not have been the case: we will see. It is the "red tops" which never let the facts get in the way of good story.
- Alan, London
Would it not be more accurately descibed as "misadventure" rather than "natural causes", there being nothing "natural" about drinking to the point of unconciousness and emesis? Poor fella.
- Neil, London, London UK
