Liam Payne charges explained as three charged with ‘abandonment of a person followed by death’ (
Image: Getty Images)

Liam Payne was only 31-years-old when he plunged to his death from the third-floor balcony of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last month

Three people were charged in connection with the tragic death of One Direction singer Liam Payne.

The Strip That Down singer was only 31 years old when he plunged to his death from the third-floor balcony of the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He had been in the country on holiday and even attended his old pal Niall Horan’s concert with his girlfriend in the weeks before his death.

Witnesses had said hotel staff ‘were on edge’ over his behaviour in the hours before his passing when he was hanging around the lobby. At one point, he is said to have ‘smashed his computer to the ground’ after reading his emails. Hotel Casa Sur’s head of reception reportedly made two 911 calls, asking for ‘someone to come’ after disclosing that a guest was ‘off his head on drugs and is destroying everything in his room’.

Toxicology results revealed that in the ‘moments prior to his death’ and ‘during at least his last 72 hours’, he ‘only’ had traces of a ‘poly-consumption of alcohol, cocaine and a prescribed anti-depressant’ in his system. The conclusion was reached after ‘full toxicological tests on urine, blood and vitreous humour, which were carried out in a very short time.’

Following a detailed investigation, which is still continuing, and an autopsy, it was revealed that officials arrested three people and charged them in connection with his heartbreaking death on October 16. But what were the three people charged with?

What are the three suspects charged with?

Three suspects have been charged ( 
Image:
Getty Images)
According to the statement from the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office, officials ruled out suicide as Liam ‘did not know what he was doing and could no understand it’. Investigators went through over 800 hours of CCTV footage, examined the contents of Liam’s phones, and went through the hotel registry and hotel/restaurant orders.

“Several gigabytes of data were obtained and examined in a short period of time from the extraction of data from other mobile phones such as the one at the hotel reception and those of witnesses who volunteered to corroborate their statements,” the statement revealed.

The release also stated they arrested three people, one of them a member of staff at the hotel, and charged them with the “crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics.” They said the crimes were punishable by a prison sentence of up to 15 years on conviction.

According to the release, the first of the accused is the person who ‘accompanied the artist on a daily basis during his stay in the city of Buenos Aires’. That person is “charged with the crimes of abandonment of a person followed by death – contemplated in article 106 of the Penal Code and which provides for a prison sentence of 5 to 15 years -, as perpetrator, in ideal concurrence with the supply and facilitation of narcotics (art. 5 inc. e) of Law 23.737 on Narcotics).”

The second person is a hotel employee, with them being charged with “two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the period he was at the hotel”. And the third person, who is also a supplier of narcotics, is “charged with two other clearly proven supplies at two different times on 14 October.”

“Both were charged with the offence of supplying narcotics, two acts each (art. 5 inc. e) of Law 23.737),” the statement said of the second and third person.