The Argentine prosecutor's office revealed Thursday, November 7, that ex-member of boy band One Direction Liam Payne had consumed alcohol, cocaine and antidepressants before his death on October 16, and that three people were charged with, among other things, having supplied him with narcotics.
“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.
Liam Payne died at age 31multiple traumas” and a “internal and external bleeding” 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 prosecution also confirmed the initial results of the autopsy suggesting that the injuries on the victim's body were consistent with those of a fall and that self-mutilation or “physical intervention by third parties” were excluded.
The autopsy revealed that on Payne's hands “no defensive type injuries were found, that all 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-or total unconsciousness.”
A thesis validated Thursday by the prosecution: “Payne was not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of notable diminution or abolition of consciousness at the time of the fall.”
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 victim’s last hours 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 person followed by death”an offense punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison, and supply of narcotics.
A hotel employee “must answer for twice supplying cocaine to Liam Payne during his stay”and a third person is “charged with supplying drugs on two occasions at two different times on October 14.
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.
The singer's death sparked a wave of tributes across the world. One Direction, who was one of the most lucrative boy bands in the world, with their smooth and light pop, released their fifth and final studio album in 2016, “Made in the A.M”. The announcement the same year of a break in the group's career, never formalized as a separation, upset millions of fans.
The members of the boy band then began solo careers with varying degrees of success. Liam Payne had released his first album, “LP1“, in 2019. Last year he announced that he was working on a second album and had just released a new single in March 2024. He was the father of a child now aged 7.
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