Liam Payne’s inquest moved until 2026 for ‘eyewitness reports’

The final inquest into Liam Payne’s death has been delayed until 2026 for further evidence. Photo / Getty Images

A final inquest into Liam Payne’s death has been delayed until 2026 as “full reports and witness statements” have been requested.

Senior Coroner Crispin Butler said “continuing investigations in Argentina into the circumstances surrounding Liam’s death” are ongoing, during a three-minute pre-inquest review hearing at Buckinghamshire Coroner’s Court on Thursday (November 6, 2025).

He added: “We will continue to liaise with the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office to seek to procure full reports, witness statements and other relevant evidence to assess in due course to address the statutory questions at a final inquest … namely who the deceased was, a final medical cause of death, when, where and how he came by his death.”

Liam tragically died aged 31 after he plunged from a third-floor hotel balcony in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on October 16, 2024.

An autopsy after the former One Direction band member’s death said he was killed by multiple traumas, as well as “internal and external haemorrhage” during his fall at the Casa Sur Hotel.

In February, an Argentinian court dropped charges of criminal negligence against three out of the five people who had been charged in connection with Liam’s death.

The coroner has been forwarded initial documentation relating to Liam’s autopsy, which was done in Argentina, as well as an initial police report.

The documents will now be translated, with communication and co-operation from the What Makes You Beautiful hitmaker’s family.

The inquest was adjourned until a further pre-inquest review takes place on May 7, 2026.

On the first anniversary of Liam’s death, his sisters Nicola Payne and Ruth Gibbins paid tribute to the late star on Instagram.

And Ruth admitted she is still “paralysed” by grief daily.

Her emotional statement read: “I underestimated grief, woah, did I underestimate it. I am paralysed by it daily.

“I thought I had felt it before, but I know the losses before you were just intense sadness, you are the loss of my life, the one person who l will miss at every single occasion in my life. I’d taken for granted that my little brother would be there through life.

“You shouldn’t have died.”

Ruth also shared she had been suffering from a recurring nightmare of being in the One Direction star’s hotel room, but he could not hear her “screaming” for him.

She added: “My brain is locked on your last minutes on this earth, the unaccounted minutes, the minutes I will never have the answers to, the minutes that changed everything.”