Liam Payne death: Singer alleged to have previously struggled with drug addiction

Roger Nores (inset) is one of the five individuals under investigation over the death of One Direction star Liam Payne. Photo / Forbes, Getty

Liam Payne is alleged to have suffered drug addiction in the year before his death.

The One Direction singer fell to his death, aged 31, on October 16 from the third-floor balcony of his room at the Casa Sur Palermo hotel in rel="" title="https://www.nzherald.co.nz/topic/buenos-aires/">Buenos Aires, Brazil, with his suite reportedly littered with drugs paraphernalia.

His friend Roger Nores has now said in a long court filing obtained by Page Six the performer was voluntarily in and out of rehab centres for nearly 12 months in an attempt to “overcome” his apparent battle with substance abuse.

He said in the papers: “I was a friend who loved him very much, who helped him selflessly in everything I could, who spent my own money to help him, and even then it was not enough.

“I do not consider that I deserve the accusation that is being levelled at me.”

Nores has been accused of abandoning Payne before his fatal fall and he detailed the late singer’s alleged addiction issues after a judge called for him to be questioned as part of the investigation.

The document in which he makes the claims is not a deposition, and Nores used it to defend himself against charges that could land him up to 15 years behind bars.

He said in the papers Payne’s alleged rehab stints were “not successful” and he claimed the performer had tried heroin.

The businessman also claimed Payne had to be resuscitated multiple times in the year leading up to his death.

Nores alleged in September 2023 the former One Direction member “suffered from a severe intoxication that left him close to death”.

He said the incident took place in Milan, Italy, and left Payne hospitalised for days.

Nores also claimed Payne was hospitalised in London two more times and had to be resuscitated due to “high levels of intoxication”.