Boyzone star ‘died in prayer position’

October 13, 2009  •  Andalucia  •  0 Comments

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POP star Stephen Gately died of natural causes while on holiday in Mallorca, a post mortem has confirmed.

An official revealed that the Boyzone singer suffered a pulmonary oedema – an accumulation of fluid on the lungs.

She refused to comment on whether he may have taken drugs during his night out.

Gately’s body was found “lifeless and pale” in his Palma apartment on Sunday morning.

According to reports he was discovered by Bulgarian Georgi Dochev crouching on a sofa in a strange “prayer position”.

Reports suggest that Gately, 33, had embarked on an eight-hour drinking binge with his civil partner Andy Cowles.

At some point during the evening, it appears that they met up with Dochev, who ended up back at the apartment they owned in Port Andratx.

Police sources have revealed that the singer, who was working on a book, choked to death on his own vomit.

Both Dochev and Cowles were interviewed at length about the evening, while an official post mortem was due to be released this week.

They were seen downing cocktails at The Black Cat gay club before returning to Gately’s flat.

Dochev, 25, revealed to the Sun newspaper: “I am devastated. I came out of the bedroom and found Stephen dead. I woke the husband.

It is awful – I am in shock and I’m ill with it. I haven’t slept a wink.

“I was with the husband all yesterday. He was too upset to call the ambulance. He was holding Stephen, so I called them.

It is awful – I am in shock and I’m ill with it. I haven’t slept a wink.

“We have talked to the police but I cannot talk about other things.”

However, Gately’s family have moved quickly to rule out the involvement of drugs and have attributed his death to natural causes.

His former bandmates, who flew to the island on Sunday, led the tributes for Gately calling him “our friend and brother” and said that he “lit up our lives”.

The Gately family lawyer insisted his death was due to natural causes.

Gately shot to fame with Irish boy band Boyzone in 1994 singing alongside Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch.

The groups’ first major hit was with a cover of The Osmonds’ song Love Me For a Reason which reached number two in the UK chart.

Irish music mogul, Louis Walsh – manager of Boyzone – had to pull out of Sunday’s X Factor show on hearing the news.

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