Gately complaint over Moir article dropped

The press watchdog has decided that Jan Moir's 'homophobic' newspaper article about the late Stephen Gately did not break the law.

The Boyzone singer's husband Andrew Cowles, along with 25,000 readers of the Daily Mail, complained to the Press Complaints Commission after Moir blamed Gately's sexuality and lifestyle for his death in October last year.

PCC director Stephen Abell told the BBC: "The article clearly caused distress to Mr Cowles, as well as many others, and this was regrettable."

Although the PCC said that it could "fully understand" why people had been offended by the feature, it added that it could not uphold the article as unlawful.

Moir has said that she regrets writing the "ill-timed" column but denies that there were homophobic undertones.