Six weeks after Liam Payne was buried in a cemetery in the Buckinghamshire town of Amersham, 7,000 miles away in Buenos Aires, the investigation into the circumstances of his death has taken a decisive turn.
According to Argentine media, five people have been officially charged in connection with the death of the 31-year-old One Direction singer.
They include Payne’s close friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, who has reportedly been charged with ‘negligent manslaughter’ and banned from traveling.
Two senior members of staff at the hotel where Payne died have been charged with manslaughter, while a third hotel employee and a waiter at a nearby restaurant have been accused of supplying drugs to the star.
Payne, who had been in and out of rehab for years, died on October 16 after falling from the third-floor balcony of his suite at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, where he was staying while awaiting the renewal of his US license. visa.
A post-mortem investigation ruled that his death was caused by “multiple trauma” resulting in “internal and external bleeding”, while the toxicology report revealed that his body contained traces of cocaine, alcohol and a prescription antidepressant.
The action taken yesterday by the National Criminal and Correctional Court No. 34 of Argentina follows an 11-week investigation carried out in a context of intrigue and unprecedented public scrutiny.
For three weeks in November, I reported on Liam Payne’s death from Buenos Aires, meeting and speaking with several people close to the pop star and the case. While these charges are not a surprise, they mark the beginning of an important new chapter in this devastating story.
Braian Paiz, 24, accused of supplying drugs to Liam Payne in exchange for money
Liam’s close friend Roger Nores is reportedly charged with negligent homicide and has been banned from traveling.
So who has been charged and what are the strengths of the cases against them?
Braian Nahuel Paiz, 24, who met Payne on October 2 while waiting tables at the exclusive Cabana Las Lilas restaurant in Puerto Madero, where steak flambéed in cognac costs £108, has been accused of supplying the star with drugs money exchange.
Ezequiel Pereyra, 21, who worked at the CasaSur Hotel, has also done it.
Judge Laura Graciela Bruniard has ordered the preventive detention of both men. If convicted, the couple faces a maximum sentence of 15 years in prison.
Paiz, who in a Nov. 9 interview admitted to using drugs and drinking alcohol with the singer, strenuously denies that money was ever exchanged.
“I have messages where he offers me money because apparently he was used to offering money for everything, but I never accepted anything,” he previously said.
Paiz’s defense lawyer, Fernando Madeo, has indicated that his client will appeal the judge’s ruling. There is no indication that Paiz and Pereyra know each other.
The most serious charge of homicide has been filed against CasaSur’s head receptionist, Esteban Grassi, and the hotel director, Gilda Martín.
The role played by CasaSur staff in Payne’s death was first exposed in mid-November when this newspaper published a shocking still image taken from the hotel’s CCTV footage, which appeared to show three employees carrying the apparently unconscious singer. by the lobby minutes before his death. .
Liam with his influencer girlfriend Kate Cassidy, where he stayed with her in a $12,000-a-month mansion over the summer.
Tributes left outside the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires where Liam died on October 16 after falling from the third-floor balcony of his suite
The Mail understands that Esteban Grassi and Gilda Martín were two of the people photographed carrying Payne. The third is believed to be a masseuse at the hotel, who is not involved in the criminal investigation.
My investigation of the hotel’s CCTV footage raised a number of pressing questions, including whether staff could have saved Payne’s life by immediately calling an ambulance after he lost consciousness, apparently under the influence of drugs, instead of take you back to your suite, with its balcony.
It’s worth adding that Grassi was clearly aware of the danger he had put Payne in. When Grassi finally called 911, he told the operator, “I don’t know if his life, the guest’s life, could be in danger.” He’s in a room with a balcony and, well, we’re a little afraid he might do something.’
While a court of law will ultimately rule on the couple’s guilt or innocence, it certainly appears that Grassi and Martin made a catastrophic error in judgment by not seeking immediate medical assistance for Payne.
But the most shocking charge is the one brought against Payne’s friend and confidant, Roger Nores, a man I got to know well in November. When I met Roger for the first time in a cafe in Buenos Aires, a month after Payne’s death, it was clear that he was still in shock.
“I keep thinking that I’m going to run into him or that my phone is going to ring and he’ll be on the other end of the line,” Nores told me, visibly distressed.
Over the course of multiple meetings, I forensically questioned Roger about what had happened in the days and hours leading up to Payne’s death. Nothing I heard in response made me think he would be charged with negligent homicide.
So what do the Buenos Aires police seem to know that the rest of us don’t?
Traces of white powder and other drug paraphernalia were discovered on a table in Liam’s hotel room.
Roger, 35, looks nothing like the hedonistic and deeply troubled star he first befriended in 2020 at a party thrown by then-British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful. Roger, soft-spoken and teetotal, says he has never tried a drug in his life.
“The truth is that we both wanted to be a little more alike,” Roger explained to me. ‘I wanted to go out a bit more and have fun, while Liam wanted to be a bit more boring!’
Roger’s account of their relationship was perfectly clear. Over the past year, as Liam’s drug addiction worsened, the businessman repeatedly tried to protect him, like a “big brother,” as he put it.
In the summer, it was Roger who helped Liam settle in Florida, where he stayed in a $12,000-a-month mansion with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy, and arranged for a team of medical professionals to take care of him.
In August, Roger wrote a widely publicized email to Liam’s team in the UK, begging them to look after the troubled star when he flew to Manchester to film a TV show for Netflix.
In other words, at every turn it seems like the man now accused of negligent homicide was also the only man working to keep Liam safe.
On the afternoon of October 16, Roger and Liam entered the CasaSur Hotel. Shortly after, Roger left alone. At the time, the star “seemed playful and happy” and chatted with guests. Forty minutes later, however, Liam would be found dead in the hotel’s inner courtyard.
Could Roger Nores really have anticipated the tragedy that was to unfold? Here it is worth remembering that the two were friends but had no official or contractual responsibilities towards each other, a fact acknowledged in a letter signed by Payne’s US lawyer and seen by the Mail.
And unlike many members of Payne’s entourage, the wealthy and independent Nores never took a dime from the singer.
Ultimately, it will be up to the court to decide whether or not Nores was responsible for Payne’s well-being, and whether leaving him at the hotel 40 minutes before his sudden decline and death constitutes “negligence.”
But what we must not forget is that Liam Payne’s death in October was, for a time, the biggest news in the world. And Argentine authorities found themselves under immense global scrutiny.
As one member of the criminal justice system recently told me: ‘If Liam wasn’t famous, no one would be charged with anything. But because of who he was, we have to act.”
The precise outcome of this action will be revealed in the coming weeks and months. But if anyone thought the tragic story of the boyband heartthrob who rose to fame at age 16 was over, they’d better think again.