The final photograph of Liam Payne alive confirmed him being hauled as much as his lodge room. Ten minutes later, he was lifeless. Now, the lads with him have been cleared. This would not stack up: FRED KELLY
This was a judgment with a sting in its tail.
On Wednesday, three of the five people named in connection with the death of Liam Payne had all charges dropped against them in an Argentine court.
As someone with a forensic knowledge of the case, having reported on the One Direction star’s death in Buenos Aires last October, I was not in the least bit surprised to hear that the charges against his friend and manager Roger Nores had been dropped. However, I was shocked to hear that two others were joining him.
Previous court documents had accused Nores of ‘abandoning’ Payne on October 16 – the fatal day when he fell from a balcony at the CasaSur Hotel – while ‘knowing that [the star] suffered from multiple addictions’.
People can argue about what the Argentine-American businessman did or did not know regarding Payne’s substance use in the days leading up to the singer’s death.
However, to the best of my knowledge – and indeed as a trio of leading judges now agree – at no point did Nores commit a criminal offence as he could not be held responsible for the ‘consequences of [Payne’s] actions’.
Liam Payne’s seemingly unconscious body being carried through the hotel lobby
The third-floor hotel balcony (circled) from where the star fell to his death
That the charge of ‘negligent homicide’ against Nores has been dropped strikes me as a case of justice served, albeit after four agonising months for the energy magnate and his family.
However, what troubles me are the dropped charges against two senior CasaSur Hotel employees: chief receptionist Esteban Grassi and hotel manager Gilda Martin.
The pair were indicted last year by Judge Laura Bruniard after the Mail’s bombshell publication of still images from the hotel’s CCTV which showed three staffers – including Grassi – hauling Payne’s seemingly unconscious body from the hotel lobby to a third-floor suite. It was from the balcony of this room that Payne fell to his death less than ten minutes later.
While Ms Martin did not lift Payne’s body herself, as the hotel manager on shift at the time, she had oversight over the entire ghastly debacle.
Four months later and all charges have been dropped. I’m afraid to say that this astonishing decision – made by judges Ignacio Rodriguez Varela, Julio Marcelo Lucini and Hernan Martin Lopez – has left me dumbstruck.
The hotel staff caused global outrage last year. So, what on earth has changed? It seemed quite clear to me when I saw the CCTV images the Mail published that Payne should have been left in the lobby and an ambulance summoned with utmost haste.
By no means am I suggesting the pair are guilty of a crime. I simply believe that swirling questions remain which must, crucially, be answered.
In the court documents this week, Ms Martin suggested she held no responsibility for Payne’s wellbeing because ‘the hotel [was] not a medical institution’ and ‘she [was] not a doctor’.
I was not in the least bit surprised to hear that the charges against his friend and manager Roger Nores had been dropped
One Direction star Liam Payne, who died in October last year
Ms Martin also suggested that she was unaware of the singer’s condition and that, had she known, she may not have admitted him to the hotel at all.
Well, I’m not sure this stacks up.
First of all, didn’t Ms Martin become responsible for Payne’s wellbeing the moment she authorised the moving of his seemingly unconscious – and according to one witness ‘convulsing’ – body from the lobby to his room, rather than immediately calling an ambulance?
Secondly, I question how Ms Martin was unaware of the star’s well-publicised struggles. The singer had spoken openly about his addictions, notably in an interview on Steven Bartlett’s Diary Of A CEO podcast in 2021.
However, more to the point and as I revealed during my investigation last year, Payne only checked into the mid-market CasaSur having been ejected from the luxury Palacio Duhau-Park Hyatt hotel for ‘being a nuisance and disturbing the other guests and appear[ing] intoxicated’.
I struggle to believe that, as manager of the CasaSur, Ms Martin was not aware of the seismic disturbance at a rival hotel immediately before the world-famous Payne checked into her own establishment.
For his part, chief receptionist Esteban Grassi claimed he too had no idea of the star’s addiction troubles while also arguing he had rushed to call 911 after leaving the singer in his suite.
Now, judges have said they believe the pair’s testimonies and that they no longer face any charges. In a statement, the trio of judges concluded that ‘locking Payne in his room cannot reasonably be argued as contributing to his death’.
How the star’s fans, both in Buenos Aires and elsewhere, will react to this verdict is another matter.
Hotel cleaner Ezequiel Pereyra and waiter Braian Paiz – both working-class suspects hailing from deprived barrios in the city – are the only two of the five originally charged not to have had the case against them dropped.
As the questions continue to swirl, the remaining pair might now be wondering what price is left to pay in this tragic case.
