Five charged in connection with Liam Payne’s death, reports say
Five people have been charged in connection with the death of One Direction singer Liam Payne in Argentina, local media report.
The 31-year-old star died on 16 October after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires.
Hotel manager Gilda Martin and hotel employee Esteban Grassi as well as Roger Nores, who reportedly was a friend of Payne, have been charged with manslaughter, Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office is quoted as saying.
Braian Paiz and Ezequiel Pereyra – who both reportedly worked at the hotel – have been charged with supplying drugs.
A judge has ordered that two of the five accused should be remanded in custody, according to the Argentinian news website Infobae.
The pair, whose names have not been reported, have been summoned to appear in court within 24 working hours, Infobae added.
The BBC has reached out to the prosecutor’s office for comment.
Argentinian authorities have been investigating Payne’s final days at the CasaSur hotel.
It was previously announced in November that three people had been charged over his death but their names were not released at the time.
Speaking to US celebrity news outlet TMZ after Payne’s death, Roger Nores said he was a “very good friend” of the singer and they had spent time together on the day the star died.
He said Payne “seemed playful and happy” when he left him about an hour before the musician fell from the balcony.
After Payne’s death, police found substances in his hotel room and objects and furniture that had been damaged.
Hotel staff had made two calls to emergency services saying they had a guest who had taken “too many drugs and alcohol”, and was “trashing the entire room”, it was previously reported.
In November, the prosecutor’s office said toxicology tests revealed traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in Payne’s body.
A post-mortem examination determined his cause of death as “multiple trauma” and “internal and external haemorrhage”, as a result of the fall from the hotel balcony.
According to the prosecutor’s office, medical reports also suggested Payne may have fallen in a state of semi or total unconsciousness.
The prosecutor’s office said this ruled out the possibility of a conscious or voluntary act by Payne, and they had concluded the singer did not know what he was doing nor have any comprehension of his actions.
Payne became one of the most recognisable names in pop after appearing on The X Factor and rising to fame with the boyband One Direction in the 2010s before the band went on an indefinite hiatus in January 2016.
The singer’s funeral was held in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, last month.
His former bandmates Harry Styles, Louis Tomlinson, Niall Horan and Zayn Malik were among the mourners, alongside Payne’s girlfriend Kate Cassidy and his former partner Cheryl, with whom he shares a son.
