LIAM Payne’s pal claims the star asked him for drugs – but it was “impossible” to know he would have died the way he did.
Liam’s good friend US businessman Roger Nores and two staff members at the hotel in Buenos Aires were charged over the One Direction star’s death from a hotel balcony on October 16 last year.
PA photo of Liam Payne attending the Fashion Awards 2022 during the Eras Tour[/caption]
White powder and burnt aluminium foil was allegedly pictured inside Liam’s hotel room[/caption]
The three breathed a sigh of relief after the manslaughter charges against them were dropped in February.
But Argentinian prosecutors later confirmed they were considering appealing the decision.
A spokesman for Argentinian public prosecutors said: “The Public Prosecutor’s Office and the plaintiffs will now evaluate the appeals that correspond to the part of the ruling that was not in accordance with the corresponding charges.”
Speaking for the first time since the appeal consideration was announced, Nores revealed how it was “impossible” to think Liam’s life “was going to end the way it did” – and that the star asked him for drugs.
The US businessman said: “When he was like that, Liam would ask 40 million people for drugs.
“He asked me, but I never gave him anything. I never tried drugs. But he managed to get them.”
He also appeared to contradict the 35-page appeal court ruling laying bare Liam’s wild final hours with two sex workers he hired, who said he had downed whisky and consumed a “crystal-like” drug.
Nores told the Argentinian daily La Nacion that “those last three days I saw him little,” adding that the late One Direction star “had a lot of energy but he wasn’t in a bad way”.
The wealthy entrepreneur said last month he was “very happy” after it emerged manslaughter charges had been sensationally dropped against him.
Appeal court judges had accepted he was just a friend of Liam’s who was helping him with his business affairs – and not his agent with responsibility for keeping him off drugs.
A lower court judge charged him late last year along with two hotel workers accused of the same crime of negligent manslaughter, Esteban Grassi and Gilda Martín.
And public prosecutors announced last week they were considering appealing the decision to drop the manslaughter charges against all three men.
Two suspects accused of selling Liam cocaine, former waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz and suspended hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra, are still in prison following their failed appeals, having been told they face continued prosecution.
Meanwhile Nores appeared unconcerned about a future appeal.
Upon being asked about the decision to charge him, he said: “Everything’s over. We left it behind.
“I have no right to victimise myself, there are worse things in life.”
Nores had intervened to try and resolve an argument over money between Liam and the two sex workers – which was the last time he saw the One Direction singer alive.
Recalling the moment, Nores said: “I went to the hotel and Liam told me to leave, saying the problem was his.
A smashed up TV and champagne glasses were also pictured[/caption]
The hotel in Buenos Aires where Liam fell to his death[/caption]
“Until that moment he was fine, as is clear from the hotel CCTV footage.”
Referring to a meeting between Liam and a hotel worker suspect still facing drug charges and the moment he found out Liam had died, he added: “Then he met with a hotel employee and came down all over the place, agitated.
“He tried to escape. And then they called me.
“It was horrible, the world stopped.”
Miami-based Nores has said in the past month that he will continue his £8.1 million US defamation lawsuit against Liam’s grieving dad Geoff over claims he made “false” statements to Argentinian prosecutors following the singer’s death – unless he gets an apology.
But in his interview with La Nacion, the businessman appeared to offer him an olive branch.
Discussing Geoff’s prosecution statement which is thought to have played a key part in judge Laura Bruniard’s decision to charge him with negligent manslaughter last year, Nores said: “Liam’s dad was trying to move on from his son’s death in the best way he could.
“He was suffering, he didn’t understand what he was saying.”
He continued: “It’s logical that people look for a culprit to make the case interesting. They were looking for someone to blame. I understand.
Liam Payne’s girlfriend opens up
By Clemmie Moodie, Assistant Editor
LIAM Payne’s devastated girlfriend broke her silence about the One Direction star’s final days — and her regret at leaving him alone before his death.
US influencer Kate Cassidy, 25, hit back at critics who accused her of abandoning Liam in Argentina where he fell to his death from a hotel balcony last October.
She tells of their “fairytale romance”, how she supported him “through thick and thin” and shares touching photographs, including her last snap of Liam, 31.
In her first global interview since the tragedy, Kate reveals her final message to the One Direction superstar — the “charming soulmate” she planned to marry.
She also shares a string of never-seen-before photos of the pair and reveals how she loved Liam from the age of 10.
Kate exclusively told The Sun: “Love is so optimistic, and you just hope that everything will work out at the end. Obviously if I knew, if I could see into the future, I would never have left Argentina.”
She debunked internet conspiracy theories that she’d returned to their Florida home after a break-up and rows — explaining she dashed back to look after their rescue dog, Nala.
Kate also believes his fall from a hotel balcony last October was an accident and not suicide.
Recalling her trip home, she said: “I had a responsibility, we had a responsibility. We had our dog and obviously I never, ever thought this event would occur.
“It was a tragic accident and no, I never did think (he might die young). But, you know, we did have our own separate lives — this wasn’t the first time we have travelled separately.
“I just never thought this would have happened, that it would turn out the way it did.”
“We knew all hell would break loose if something happened to him, but I wasn’t afraid of going to jail.
“You’re left with a sensation of helplessness. You ask yourself ‘How could I do nothing to save him? How could I not help him out of this!’”
Mr Nores’ Argentinian lawyer Rafael Cuneo Libarona, who is also involved in the separate US defamation case, had centred his fight to get his client off his manslaughter rap on a rebuttal of prosecution claims he was Liam’s representative and had failed in his duty of care towards him.
The prosecutors confirmed the appeal court judges had based their decision to clear Liam’s friend of any criminal wrongdoing on the fact he had not assumed “special obligations” that could link his conduct to Liam’s death.
The other two men told they were in the clear on February 19 following an appeal hearing are Esteban Grassi, the chief receptionist at CasaSur Palermo Hotel who made an emergency call moments before Liam died, and its head of security Gilda Martin.
Grassi was one of the three men identified alongside Martin in the last photo of Liam showing him being carried back up to his room from his hotel lobby shortly before his balcony plunge.
Like Nores, they would have faced between one and five years in prison if convicted as charged although they had been told they could be eligible for suspended jail sentences.
The two men facing drug charges have been warned they could face between four and 15 years in prison on conviction.
Details of Liam’s final hours were documented in the 35-page ruling by three judges sitting in Chamber Four of Argentina’s Criminal and Correctional Court to explain their decision to drop charges against Nores and the two hotel workers.
Sex workers Aldana Serrano and Lucila Goitea, who left the hotel just before Liam’s fatal plunge, were questioned as witnesses but never charged with any crime.
Liam tragically fell to his death aged 31[/caption]
