Liam Payne called hotel employees ‘all the time’ to ask for alcohol and advice on where he could buy cocaine shortly before he died and offered an escort $5,000 to visit him, a newly unearthed prosecution file has revealed.
The One Direction star died on October 16 after falling from a third floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He was 31.
In the weeks since, police have launched a wide-ranging investigation into his death; five people have been charged, including several hotel staff and Argentinian businessman Roger Nores, who denies being a suspect.
Esteban Grassi, the chief receptionist who is now under formal investigation, claimed Payne called down ‘insistently’ to ask for alcohol, and to ask where he could get cocaine – allegedly insulting a member of staff who said he could not help.
Further to this, text messages purporting to have been exchanged between Liam and an escort in which he offered her $5,000 (£3,900) to ‘party’.
It came as reports suggested a psychiatrist had emailed Nores to advise it was ‘impossible’ to continue supporting Liam with his mental health – and to warn of the risks associated with mixing antidepressants and alcohol.
Messages provided to prosecutors, obtained by Argentine journalist Mauro Szeta and published on his website VÃaSzeta, appeared to show a phone number from southeastern Florida sending messages to an escort on WhatsApp.
The messages included a link Liam’s Instagram profile to the escort, before asking if she wanted to ‘play’.
‘I have all day… I’d gift you $5,000… US dollars,’ the message reads. ‘You come to my hotel, we party, just me and u.’