Charges against Liam Payne’s friend dropped

Manslaughter charges against a friend of Liam Payne and two members of staff at the hotel where the singer died have been dropped.

Rogelio “Roger” Nores and two workers from the hotel in Buenos Aires were charged in December, two months after the One Direction star’s death.

On Wednesday, appeal court judges reversed the earlier decision to charge all three.

However, two other men accused of selling Payne cocaine before his death remain in prison and have been told they still face prosecution and a probable trial.

Payne died last October after falling from a balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in the Argentine capital.

Following the announcement that charges against Mr Nores had been dropped, the businessman told Rolling Stone: “Glad this is finally over. I’m happy I’m now going to be able to travel to the UK and say goodbye to my friend.”

His lawyer Rafael Cuneo Libarona said he was “happy to have reversed the decision”.

He added: “We have always maintained that Rogelio Nores was not responsible for Liam Payne’s death.

“He was only his friend and had no duty or legal obligation to ensure his safety.”

Mr Cuneo Libarona, the brother of Argentina’s justice minister, had rebutted claims from the prosecution that Mr Nores had failed in his duty of care towards the singer.

The three appeal court judges published their ruling, first obtained by Rolling Stone, eight days after a hearing at Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Court.

The two hotel workers who will also no longer face charges are Gilda Martin, its head of security, and Esteban Grassi, the chief receptionist who made an emergency call just before Payne died.

All three would have faced possible prison sentences of between one and five years if convicted, although they were told they could be eligible for suspended sentences.

Prosecutors have the option of appealing against the decision to overturn the charges, but have not yet indicated whether they will do so.

The two men who still face charges are waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz and suspended hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra, who are accused of supplying drugs to Payne. They could face prison sentences of between four and 15 years if found guilty.

Mr Nores’s alleged role as a manager and representative of Payne, a position he had denied holding, was said to have been an important element of the decision to prosecute the businessman.

In an indictment ruling in December, Judge Laura Bruniard accused Mr Nores of “failing in his duty of care, assistance and help” towards the singer.

Mr Nores previously said in a statement: “I never abandoned Liam, I went to his hotel three times that day and left 40 minutes before this happened.

“There were over 15 people at the hotel lobby chatting and joking with him when I left. I could have never imagined something like this would happen.”

He added: “I wasn’t Liam’s manager. He was just my very dear friend.”