Stephen Gately had an “intimate” night with his partner and a Bulgarian they had met hours before he died, it was revealed today.

“His face was blue”: Stephen Gately

The Boyzone star, 33, who died at his Majorcan holiday home last Saturday, allegedly engaged in a threesome with his civil partner Andrew Cowles, 32, and Georgi Dochev, 25, whom they had befriended in a Palma bar that night.

A statement Dochev gave to Spanish police reveals he had with Gately and Cowles after they invited him back to their apartment. The statement reads: “Once at the residence, they were talking and they became intimate until 5.30am.”

He added that he then left Cowles and Gately on the sofa and went into a bedroom to sleep. When he woke up later, he found Gately dead. In the statement, Dochev tells how he sat next to the singer on the sofa and realised something was wrong.

He tried to wake him with no success and rushed to get Cowles. When they returned, the statement said, Gately's lips and face were blue. They thought he may have swallowed his tongue and Cowles put his finger in Gately's mouth. It was then they realised he was dead. The Irish star's body was being flown home from Majorca by private jet today for his funeral in Dublin tomorrow.

The service will take place at St Laurence O'Toole Church in the city, a few hundred yards from where he grew up. His Boyzone bandmates — Ronan Keating, 32, Mikey Graham, 37, Shane Lynch, 33, and Keith Duffy, 35 — will spend tonight
with Gately's body in the church.

A source said: “This proves how close they were. Those lads would do anything for Stephen and they know he would not want to be there on his own.”

The group are also expected to act as pallbearers and plan to sing during the service because “it's what he would have wanted”. They will join Gately's family and celebrity friends including Sir Elton John and Lord Lloyd-Webber. Dochev also said he was invited to the funeral but hadn't yet decided if he would go.