Three charged in connection with death of One Direction star Liam Payne

Three people have been charged in connection with the death of One Direction star Liam Payne in Argentina, the public prosecutor's office in the country has said.

The 31-year-old pop star died after he fell from a third-floor balcony at the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires on 16 October.

The three were arrested and charged with "abandonment of a person followed by death, supply and facilitation of narcotics," said a statement by the office of prosecutor Andres Esteban Madrea.

The statement said "Liam Payne was not fully conscious or was experiencing a state of noticeable decrease or loss of consciousness at the time of the fall".

It said one of the accused "accompanied the artist on a daily basis" during his stay in the Argentinian capital, while another was a hotel employee.

The prosecutor's office said it had received several dozen testimonies, analysed more than 800 hours of video from security cameras and public roads, and conducted a "forensic extraction" of the contents of Payne's phone, allowing for his calls, messages and social media networks to be analysed.

It said the investigation revealed "at least four supplies of narcotics" had been discovered.

The results of toxicology tests revealed in the moments before his death Payne had alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in his body, it added.

The statement said Payne "did not adopt a reflex posture to protect himself from the fall" so it can be inferred he may have fallen "in a state of semi or total unconsciousness".

It said that would "rule out the possibility of a conscious or voluntary act" as "in the state he was in, he did not know what he was doing nor could he understand it".

Argentine investigators found what appeared to be narcotics and alcohol strewn around broken objects and furniture in Payne's hotel room, leading the public prosecution to surmise he had suffered a substance abuse-induced breakdown around the time of his fall.

Read more:
Liam Payne: A life in the spotlight
He had the X Factor, but where was the support?

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