Stephen Gately has died

[sindydoll]

its a terrable thing to happen to someone young! a lad who was 19 who lived near me died of natural causes not so long ago it just dosnt feel right!

[lizann]

Boyzone 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.

A sample of pulmonary fluid taken during the post-mortem will be sent to a forensic laboratory in Barcelona for further tests to confirm the result, the court official said.

The official added that the investigation into the death will continue as a formality with Mr Cowles and one other person declared as official witnesses.

The second witness is thought to be Bulgarian Georgi Dochev, 25, who went back to the apartment with Mr Gately and Mr Cowles after their night out and has described finding the singer’s lifeless body the next day.

Lawyer Gerald Kean, a spokesman for Mr Gately’s family in Ireland, said papers have been signed to allow the release of his body.

But he said it may be two days before it is returned to Ireland.

“The family’s only wish is to get their son and brother home as soon as possible,” Mr Kean said.

The lawyer said a number of formalities remained to be completed before Mr Gately is repatriated.

The court official said the pulmonary oedema had been "acute".

She added: “If all these steps (witness statements and tests) confirm the natural causes the case will be closed.”

She could not say whether Mr Gately had been taking any drugs or alcohol but either way, they were not the cause of death.

She declined to say whether Mr Gately had vomited before his death.

Mr Cowles, who was told of the post mortem results before the hearing, was ushered out of court looking upset.

He was dressed casually in jeans and a blue open-neck shirt for the half-hour hearing.

Local police have already said there were “no signs of suspicious circumstances”.

And Mr Kean said earlier today that Mr Gately’s family were “absolutely happy that there is no foul play”.

The family are certain no drugs were involved in his death and they do not suspect suicide, he added.

“Their sole purpose and function at the moment is to try and get their son and brother home as quickly as possible,” he said.

Mr Dochev, 25, described how the singer’s lifeless body was “very cold and white”.

He told reporters he found Mr Gately’s body on Saturday and alerted his partner, Mr Cowles.

Mr Gately’s devastated Boyzone bandmates, who flew to the Spanish island on Sunday, returned home last night.

A spokesman said: “They went there to pay their respects and start dealing with the fall-out of the situation.

“However, it’s clear that them being there at the moment is bringing a lot more attention to the situation.”

The band comforted Mr Cowles before they left.

Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch met him at the Mon Port Hotel in the resort of Port Andratx, where they were staying.

Mr Kean said Mr Gately had been in the apartment with Mr Cowles until after midnight on Friday, when he travelled to Palma, about an hour’s drive away.

A close family member spoke to the singer at 12.30am Spanish time on Saturday (11.30pm Irish time) as he was getting ready to leave, the lawyer said.

It is understood Mr Gately spent several hours socialising and was back in the apartment before 6am Spanish time.

I think he is being buried in Dublin

[lizann]

Louis Walsh has paid a glowing tribute to his friend and Boyzone star Stephen Gately, remembering him as one-off great professional.

The 'X Factor' judge said he was still in shock over the sudden death last weekend while the bandmates were devastated at the loss of their best friend.

"We're all in shock. Nobody can believe it - the guys, me, nobody. We are in shock," he said.

Walsh, who put Boyzone together in the mid-1990s, was with Gately and the rest of the band last week in London to discuss the final 10 tracks for the comeback album.

He said he had never seen the 33-year-old West End star in better health or better form.

"The boys are devastated. It's like they have lost their very, very best friend, and me too," Walsh said.

And he paid tribute to Gately's upbringing in a tough district of inner city Dublin.

"His best friend was his sister Michelle - I don't know how she is coping," Walsh said.

"The boys are like his family now. The four boys where like four daddies for him.

"He came from Sheriff Street. He was a very working class kid. All he wanted to do was sing and go to the West End and he loved Disney, that was Stephen.

"Of all the people I've worked with I don't think anybody thanked me as much as Stephen. He used to always say to me 'if I wasn't in Boyzone I don't know where I'd be today, thank-you'."

"A great, great, great professional kid."

Walsh recalled how Gately phoned him almost every Saturday night when the band first made it big more than a decade ago, worried newspapers would out him for being gay.

"He lived in fear. He lived in absolute fear of the media and the media outed him in the end but then it was a fantastic reaction. There was no negativity," Walsh told RTE.

"He loved to go out and party and a have a good time but he was very, very good living. He was a one off."

Walsh and the remaining Boyzone bandmates have been in close contact over the last few days. They are expected to gather together for the funeral in Ireland in several days.

The 'X Factor' judge, who cancelled his appearance on the TV show final last Sunday, remembered how Gately took the break-up of Boyzone in 2000 and that he was the key to getting the band back together.

"All Stephen lived for was to be singing music," Walsh said.

"He was down because the band was his life and they where his best friends and it was finished but he picked himself up and got on to the West End.

"I think he was the glue in the band because he kept everybody happy."

[sindydoll]

i saw on the news this morning that his body could be flying home this afternoon for a funeral in dublin on friday

[Abigail]

Pulmonary oedema wouldn't have been caused by choking. Its caused by lung or tissue damage.

In any case, if he had choked to death there would have been evidence of vomit or foreign bodies in his throat.

I think some journalists need to do their research properly before writing misleading articles.

[sindydoll]

they said on the news today that he had fluid on the lung

[Chloe O'brien]

RIP Stephen such a tragic waste of a young life.

[Perdita]

Stephen Gately is to be laid to rest this Saturday in his hometown of Dublin, it's been announced.

Family spokesman Gerald Kean said the funeral was due to take place at noon at St Laurence O'Toole's Church, Dublin.

At present, the body of the former Boyzone star is being held in Majorca where he died at the weekend as authorities carry out more tests.

His family are hoping that Stephen will be returned to them on Friday so they can hold a private wake at his family home.

His devastated husband Andrew Cowles visited his partner's body in the mortuary in Calvia, near Port Andratx, last night.

Meanwhile, Stephen's close friend, Boyzone manager and X Factor judge Louis Walsh has confirmed he will attend the funeral at the weekend, meaning he will miss this Saturday's live final show.

He paid a glowing tribute to the star and remembered him as a "great, great professional".

From Daily Mirror

[Perdita]

Stephen Gately reportedly consumed cannabis on the night he died.

However, a representative for the court probing the Boyzone singer's death in Majorca insisted that neither the class B drug nor alcohol were factors in his death.

"An autopsy revealed Stephen had taken cannabis, and his partner and another man present on the night he died confirmed this in interviews," The Sun reports a police insider as claiming.

A post-mortem carried out earlier this week found that Gately died from natural causes after suffering a pulmonary oedema, which is a build-up of fluid on the lungs.

His former bandmates are flying to the Spanish Island to bring the 33-year-old's body home ahead of a funeral service on Saturday in Dublin.

Gately's friend and mentor Louis Walsh, who discovered the singer during Boyzone's formation in 1993, has declined to speak at the service for fear that he will break down.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/...y-he-died.html

[Perdita]

The four surviving members of Boyzone will reportedly carry Stephen Gately's coffin at his funeral on Saturday.

Ronan Keating, Shane Lynch, Keith Duffy and Mikey Graham, as well as two of Gately's family members, are expected to bring his body to the service at St Laurence O'Toole's Church on Sheriff Street in Dublin.

The singer's husband Andrew Cowles, parents Martin and Margaret and siblings Michelle, Tony, Alan and Mark and will be joined by manager Louis Walsh and other celebrity friends for the funeral, which starts at midday.

"Stephen's husband Andrew and his family have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support from the public," lawyer Gerald Kean told Sky News.

"This is an extremely difficult time for the family but they are lifted by the fact everyone who ever met Stephen Gately had positive, happy memories.

"He was a unique, beautiful young man."

Thousands of fans are expected to line the streets on Saturday and residents of the the Sheriff Street district have reportedly been cleaning up the area ahead of the ceremony.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/showbiz/...ly-coffin.html