A little more than three weeks after his death, Argentine prosecutors revealed that Liam Payne had consumed alcohol and drugs before his fatal fall. While the investigation continues into the circumstances of this tragedy, three people have been indicted.
Argentinian prosecutors revealed Thursday that the former One Direction member had consumed alcohol, cocaine and antidepressants before his death on October 16, and that three people were charged with providing him with drugs. Liam Payne died at the age of 31 from “multiple trauma” and “internal and external hemorrhage” after falling from the balcony of his hotel room in Buenos Aires, where he had been staying for a few days. His father Goeff Payne returned his body to England on Wednesday.
“The results of the toxicological studies – already communicated to his family – revealed that, in the moments preceding his death and for at least his last 72 hours, Payne presented in his body a polyconsumption of alcohol, cocaine and antidepressants” , indicates the prosecution in a press release. Initial autopsy results also suggest that the injuries on the victim's body were consistent with those of a fall and that self-harm or “physical intervention by third parties” were ruled out.
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The autopsy revealed that on Liam Payne's hands “no injuries of a 'defensive' type were found, that all the injuries were vital and produced simultaneously with each other.” In other words, due to these injuries and the position of the body on the ground, the autopsy estimated that “Payne did not adopt a reflex posture to protect himself (in the fall) and that he may have fallen into a state of semi-unconsciousness or total unconsciousness”. A thesis validated Thursday by the prosecution: “Payne was not fully conscious or was going through a state of notable reduction or abolition of consciousness at the time of the fall”.
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Three indictments
The investigation opened into the causes of death, with the examination of cell phones, computers and videos from security cameras, searches in the hotel room and “numerous witness statements in order to reconstruct the last hours of the victim and the course of events”, led to the indictment of three people for selling drugs and abandoning a vulnerable person, announced the prosecution.
Without specifying the names of the people involved, the prosecution specified that the person who accompanied Liam Payne daily during his stay in Buenos Aires was charged with “abandonment of a person followed by death”, an offense punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison, and supply of narcotics. A hotel employee “faces charges of twice supplying cocaine to Liam Payne during his stay,” and a third person is “charged with twice supplying narcotics at two different times on October 14.” .
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Geoff Payne, the father of Liam Payne, watches tributes to his son, outside the CasaSur hotel in Buenos Aires, October 18, 2024.
AFP / © JUAN MABROMATA / AFP
In a 2023 video posted on his YouTube account, Liam Payne admitted to having been admitted to a rehab center for his alcoholism: “I kind of became someone I didn't really recognize anymore. And I’m sure you don’t recognize it either,” he said then.
His body repatriated to England, to his hometown of Wolverhampton, Liam Payne's funeral should be held in the coming days. A source from the “Sun” confirmed Thursday that the ceremony will be held in the strictest privacy. Members of the group One Direction, Harry Styles, Zayn Malik, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson are expected to make the trip, as well as the producer who revealed them on the show “X Factor”, Simon Cowell.
