Stephen Gately’s partner complains to PCC

Andrew Cowles, the civil partner of Stephen Gately, has lodged a complaint with the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) over Daily Mail columnist Jan Moir's controversial article about the late Boyzone singer.

Moir's column, in which she described Gately's death at the age of 33 as "strange, lonely and troubling" has already generated 25,500 complaints to the PCC - the highest-ever for a single article.

Cowles, via his lawyers Mishcon de Reya, is claiming that Moir's column breached guidelines on accuracy, intrusion into grief or shock, and discrimination. Published the day before Gately's funeral, Moir's article also claimed that the singer's death had struck a blow to the "happy-ever-after myth of civil partnerships".

Gately died on October 10 at his Majorcan holiday home. On the night of his death he and Cowles had taken a Bulgarian man home with them after meeting him in a gay nightclub in Palma. Post-mortem tests found Gately died of natural causes.

Moir later expressed regret over the article, which generated a massive public outcry. She denied the piece had homophobic undertones, saying such accusations were "mischievous".

In the column, Moir wrote: "Healthy and fit 33-year-old men do not just climb into their pyjamas and go to sleep on the sofa, never to wake up again. Whatever the cause of death is, it is not, by any yardstick, a natural one."

The PCC now plans to investigate the complaint with the Daily Mail. ·