The 25-year-old refused to comment on claims that he had spent the night in bed with Mr Cowles, 32 — Gately's civil partner of three years.
He said he had no wish to heighten Mr Cowles's grief by going into detail about the hours leading up to Gately's death. "All I will say is that there's a lot of rubbish being printed," he said.
Mr Dochev, a regular at the Black Cat, the gay club in Palma where the trio met, said he tried to comfort Mr Cowles as he wept and held Gately's body after trying to revive him with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Friends of the couple said Mr Cowles was struggling to cope. He reportedly said: "I feel that my life is over. We have had wilder nights out in Dublin and this was nothing out of the ordinary. If only I had gone in to check him."
He is hoping to take Gately's body back to his home in Dublin for a funeral at the end of the week. Today police refused to comment on the investigation.
