Five people have been charged in connection with Liam’s death (
Image: AFP via Getty Images)
Two months after Liam Payne fatally fell off the third-floor balcony of his hotel room in Argentina, five people have reportedly been charged in connection with his death
Five people have reportedly been charged over Liam Payne’s death, including one of the singer’s closest friends.
The former X Factor star, 31, fatally plunged from the third floor of the Casa Sur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 16. A body was found in the hotel’s internal patio, and a post-mortem examination found the father-of-one had died of multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding.
Now, four members of staff and one of Liam’s friends, multimillionaire businessman Roger Nores, have reportedly been charged in connection with his death. Two people have been remanded in custody and told to appear in court within 24 business hours. Here, The Mirror takes a look at everything we know…
Image:
Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Liam’s pal Roger Nores, who said he left the hotel around an hour before the musician fell to his death, has been reportedly charged with negligent homicide and been banned from leaving the country. Earlier this month it was reported that he had refused to answer questions from an investigating judge probing the singer’s death. Mr Nores has vehemently denied claims that he abandoned his friend before he plunged from his balcony after reports he was acting ‘erratically’ in the hotel lobby.
Hotel workers made two 911 phone calls before Liam was found dead. A caller appearing to be the chief receptionist said they had a guest who had taken “too many drugs and alcohol”, and was “trashing the entire room”, before the line cut out. In a second call, the same caller warned the guest’s life “may be in danger” as the room had a balcony, and asked the operator to send someone “urgently”.
Image:
Buenos Aires Police/AFP via Gett)
Speaking in a TMZ documentary investigating Liam’s death and final hours that aired earlier this month, Mr Nores said his friend was ‘in good spirits and perfectly balanced’ the day he died. In a statement prior to the documentary’s release, he said: “I never abandoned Liam, I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened. There were over 15 people at the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left. I could have never imagined something like this would happen.”
Staff members
Members of staff at the Casa Sur Palermo hotel, including chief receptionist Esteban Grassi and head of security Gilda Martin, have reportedly been charged with manslaughter. Waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, 24, and hotel employee Ezequiel David Pereyra, 21, have been accused of selling Liam drugs and given 24 hours to return to court, according to local news site Infobae. The crime carries a maximum 15 year prison sentence in Argentina.
Mr Grassi claimed Liam called down to the hotel reception ‘insistently’ to ask for alcohol and asked where he could get cocaine, then allegedly insulted a member of staff who said he could not help. Mr Paiz told local television in an interview: “I never took drugs to [Liam] or accepted any money.” It has been reported Mr Pereyra is the hotel worker suspected of delivering drugs to Liam in a Dove soap box. He has not commented publicly since being placed under investigation.
Hotel waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz has been accused of selling Liam drugs (
Image:
Gerard Couzens)
Before the funeral, prosecutors in Argentina ruled out third-party involvement and “self-harm” in Payne’s death, according to a forensic psychiatric report. “Although other medical background information from the victim’s clinical history must still be analysed, the phenomenon of the lack of defence or self-preservation reflex in the fall, together with other relevant data from his consumption, allow us to conclude that Liam Payne was not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall,” prosecutors said in a translated statement.
The office also said it had completed a detailed analysis of more than 800 hours of video footage from security cameras and obtained several dozen testimonies from hotel staff, family members, friends, and medical professionals. Nine raids were ordered on properties in Buenos Aires, and some of Liam’s devices were analysed for evidence.
