The student who found the Boyzone star Stephen Gately dead at a luxury holiday apartment revealed today that he plans to attend the funeral with the singer’s partner.

Georgi Dochev discovered Gately slumped on the sofa of the house where the singer was staying with his partner, Andrew Cowles, on the island of Majorca.

The singer’s bandmates are preparing to fly to Majorca tomorrow to collect his body and to return it to Dublin for a private family Mass tomorrow night. Ronan Keating, Keith Duffy, Mikey Graham and Shane Lynch will also attend a funeral service that is expected to attract thousands of fans at noon on Saturday.

Mr Dochev, who had returned to the apartment with the couple after they had been to a gay nightclub in Palma, admitted that his plans to attend the funeral could be controversial.

“We’re flying to Ireland on Friday,” said Mr Dochev, 25. “I don’t know what the people will tell about me going to the burial, because I know there will be some talking — if I’ve been his lover or not.”

Mr Dochev, who is in the third year of a psychology degree, said that he was still traumatised by the death.

The student, from Sofia, Bulgaria, refused to discuss what happened during the hours before he discovered Gately’s body at the one-bedroom apartment.

“I feel bad, I don’t feel good at all,” he said. “You don’t find a dead man in the house every day . . . Do you understand what I mean?,” he told Darik Radio in Bulgaria.

“I’m a strong man, the time heals everything, my boyfriend is here and with time passing everything will be healed. Everything will be clear when I do the interview for the British press.”

Gately, who joined Boyzone in 1993 after answering an advert in Dublin to audition for Ireland’s first boyband, sent ripples through the pop music world ten years ago when he announced that he was gay. He was introduced to Mr Cowles by Sir Elton John and his partner David Furnish and the pair celebrated a civil union in 2006.

Gately’s body was released by Spanish authorities on Tuesday after a post-mortem examination found that he died from natural causes. The tests indicated that he had suffered an acute pulmonary oedema, an accumulation of fluid on the lungs that is often associated with a heart problem.

Gately, 33, had been with Mr Cowles, 32, until after midnight on Friday at their apartment in Port Andratx. The couple travelled to Palma, about a 30 minutes drive away. It is understood that Gately spent several hours socialising, including a visit to the Black Cat nightclub.

His body was discovered at about 1pm when Mr Dochev noticed the singer slumped forward “cold and white” on the sofa.

Spanish police have said that there were no signs of suspicious circumstances, but an investigation into the singer’s death will continue as a formality.

A Spanish police source has said that Mr Cowles had told them that Gately had smoked cannabis on the night he died.

The singer’s family — who maintained that no drugs were involved in his death and they did not suspect suicide— are said to be satisifed that there was no foul play.

Gerald Kean, the Gately family solicitor, said that the singer’s parents, Margaret and Martin, were still trying to come terms with their son’s sudden death. “The family’s only wish is to get their son and brother home as soon as possible,” he said.

He said that Gately may have been suffering an underlying heart problem and that other relatives on his father’s side also had heart trouble.

“The minute Stephen’s mother heard the news she said, ‘I knew it’,” the lawyer said. “There was a problem on the father’s side. There were one or two on the father’s side of the family who died young.”

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