Liam Payne took cocaine, antidepressant before death – investigation
British singer-songwriter Liam Payne poses on the red carpet on arrival for the BRIT Awards 2019 in London on Feb. 20, 2019. Image: Tolga Akmen/AFP
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Updated) — One Direction star Liam Payne consumed cocaine, alcohol and a prescription antidepressant before falling to his death from a Buenos Aires hotel balcony last month, Argentine prosecutors said Thursday.
The prosecutor’s office added that three people were charged with supplying him with drugs and one of them was also charged with abandoning a person in a vulnerable state.
READ: Liam Payne, former One Direction member, dies in Argentina hotel fall
“The results of the toxicological studies which have been communicated to his family revealed that, in the moments prior to his death and over a period covering at least his last 72 hours, Payne had traces of polydrug use of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his body,” the prosecutors said.
Payne was found dead on October 16 after plunging from the balcony of his third-floor room at the CasaSur Hotel in the Argentinian capital.
Article continues after this advertisementAn autopsy found he died after sustaining “multiple traumas” and “internal and external hemorrhaging” from the fall.
Article continues after this advertisementOne of the highest-grossing live acts in the world, One Direction went on indefinite hiatus in 2016.
Payne went on to enjoy a degree of solo success but his career had languished recently.
His death at age 31 prompted a global outpouring of grief and condolences from family, former bandmates, fans and others.
The prosecution said that the investigation had revealed “illegal conduct” which had led to charges being brought against three people, whom it did not name.
It said one of the three had accompanied him on a daily basis during his stay in Buenos Aires and was charged with abandoning a person who later died as well as supplying him with narcotics.
The second suspect is a hotel employee accused of twice supplying Payne with cocaine while he was staying at the CasaSur. A third person is also accused of supplying him with the drug on October 14, two days before his death.
The prosecution ruled out self-harm and the “physical intervention of third parties” as the cause of Payne’s death, saying that the injuries he sustained were compatible with those caused by a fall from a height.
“Payne was either not fully conscious or was in a state of markedly diminished or absent consciousness at the time of the fall,” the report added.
