Liam Payne had a blood alcohol level more than three times the legal driving limit when he fell to his death from a hotel balcony in Argentina last October, a new toxicology report has revealed.
The former One Direction star had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of “up to 2.7 grams per litre in his blood” at the time of his death, according to a statement from Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No. 14.
The report sheds new light on the 31-year-old singer’s condition in his final moments – just months after it was confirmed the star had several substances in his system at the time of his death.
The list of substances included “cocaine metabolites, methylecgonine, benzoylecgomine, cocaethylene and the medication sertraline,” according to the prosecutor’s statement – Sertraline is a prescription antidepressant.
Preliminary toxicology tests conducted shortly after his death had already found traces of cocaine, benzodiazepine, crack cocaine and “pink cocaine” in his system before the full list was determined.
“Pink cocaine” is a combination of methamphetamine, ketamine and MDMA, according to reports which confirmed the earlier suspicions about the singer’s state at the time of the fatal incident.
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A blood alcohol concentration of 2.7 grams per litre (0.27 per cent) can cause serious symptoms including confusion, disorientation, and feeling dazed, according to Alcohol.org.
This level of intoxication would have severely impaired Payne’s judgement and coordination, with medical experts warning that a BAC above 0.3 per cent increases the risk of alcohol poisoning and a level of 0.4 per cent can be potentially fatal.
Payne’s BAC was more than three times the legal driving limit in both the UK and the US, which is 0.08 per cent, and such high alcohol levels would have left the star in a significantly compromised state.
Payne died on October 16, 2024, after falling from the third floor of the CasaSur Hotel in Buenos Aires.
In January, his medical cause of death was officially confirmed as “polytrauma”, referring to multiple traumatic injuries to his body after an autopsy revealed that his death was caused by “multiple trauma and internal and external bleeding”.
Prosecutors have ruled out suicide, stating that Payne was in a state of “semi or total unconsciousness” when he fell and indicated he “didn’t know what he was doing” at the time of the fall.
The singer’s girlfriend, Kate Cassidy, had stayed with him in Argentina but flew home before he checked into the CasaSur – with the model recently sharing her regret of leaving the singer in the state he was.
Initially, five people were charged over Payne’s death, but Argentine authorities later dropped charges against three of them.
Payne’s friend, Rogelio “Roger” Nores, and two hotel employees – manager Gilda Martín and chief receptionist Esteban Grassi – were cleared of manslaughter charges.
Appeal court judges reversed an earlier decision to charge them at the end of December, however, two other men still face prosecution for allegedly supplying drugs to the singer.
Waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz and hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra remain in prison and could face between four and 15 years if convicted.
According to a 35-page court ruling, Payne allegedly contacted two women – Aldana Serrano and Lucila Goitea – through a sex worker website and invited them to his hotel room.
The women reportedly arrived at 11:30am on October 16 to find the singer inhaling a “crystal-like” drug from aluminium foil, to which Payne then allegedly asked them to source more drugs before the trio engaged in sexual activity.
After approximately two-and-a-half hours, he reportedly smashed the TV and ordered them to leave without payment, with his hotel room being found in a damaged state following his death.
