One of the three suspects being investigated over Liam Paynes death has broken his silence to insist he did nothing wrong and make claims about his relationship with the singer.
Argentinian waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, who has been identified as the singers dealer in an ongoing prosecution probe, admitted to two hotel meetings with the 31-year-old before his fatal October 16 plunge and confessed to taking drugs with him.
But he insisted he never supplied Liam with narcotics or accepted any money from him.
The 24-year-old said he spent the night with the former One Direction singer at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires during a second rendezvous.
Paiz, who appeared on Argentinian TV on Saturday, claimed that arranged meeting followed an earlier get-together preceded by an initial encounter at the restaurant in the upmarket neighbourhood of Puerto Madero where he worked when he claimed he and Liam exchanged contact details as the singer dined with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and two other people.
Argentinian waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz, who has been identified as the singers dealer in an ongoing prosecution probe, admitted to two hotel meetings with the 31-year-old
A photo showing Paiz with Liam Payne, allegedly in the days before his death
Liam last post on Snapchat before he fell to his death from the third floor of a hotel in Buenos Aires
He spoke in an on-camera interview to journalist Guillermo Panizza, who had to clarify to a programme host in the studio what Paiz meant to say at times when the young mans nerves seemed to get the better of him and his account left viewers confused and said Liam used a secret Instagram to communicate with Paiz.
The first rendezvous with Liam is said to have occurred on October 2 at another hotel the singer was staying at ahead of his move to CasaSur Palermo following their initial restaurant encounter.
Paiz said in a first segment of the extraordinary interview, admitting his former home has been searched but claiming he is yet to be quizzed by investigators: I never supplied Liam with drugs.
Liams first contact with me was at my place of work.
We swapped details and saw each other later that night. It was all normal. He came down from his hotel room to fetch me because I had got lost.
Naming the hotel as the Hyatt in Palermo, he added: We got together there and he showed me some of the music he was going to bring out.
Ive heard people saying he was taking drugs but the truth is that when he got to the restaurant where I was working he was already under the effects of drugs and he didnt actually eat anything.
There was a moment when he approached me and asked me for my contact details. I gave him an Instagram and afterwards he sent me messages because he wanted to take drugs although he had already consumed narcotics.
It was October 2. While I was in his room we had some whisky shots.
He continued, after the TV programme showed viewers a photo of him and Liam together said to have been taken during their first hotel meeting where the singer was wearing a white top and baseball cap: Our second hotel meeting was on the night of Sunday October 13.
We spent the night together, we consumed drugs because the truth is that something intimate happened.
I stayed there all night. I consumed marijuana and he consumed cocaine, the cocaine thats in all the photos that came out after his death.
He was separating it and cleaning it before smoking it. I didnt say anything to him about it because he seemed normal to me.
He wasnt aggressive at all, he behaved really well with me, he was really sweet. He asked me if I was okay.
Ive got all the messages where we arranged that second meeting. I havent erased anything.
Liam looks at his laptop in the Casa Sur Hotel lobby in Buenos Aires on Wednesday at 4.26pm The alarm was raised at 5.04pm following his fall
Alleging in a rambling account of the nights events that when he left Liam appeared frightened and instead of putting his room card in the key slot, stuffed a handful of papers into it to keep the door open, he claimed: I didnt really understand what was going on but at the same time I realised something strange was happening.
Paiz added in a third and final segment of his TV interview: We took drugs together but I never took drugs to him or accepted any money.
I have messages where hes offering me money because he was apparently used to offering money for everything but I never accepted anything.
When I left he wanted to give me some clothes so that I had a memory of being with him but I left it behind the TV because I didnt want to take it. It was some grey jogging bottoms and a T-shirt.
I told Liam a best friend of mine wanted to meet him because he was a fan. He said yes and after I went he appeared outside the place where I lived and managed to get halfway into the building and wanted us to go back to his hotel but I told him I couldnt because I had to go to work.
I was due to start at 11.30am but I had to arrive beforehand. That was the last time I saw him. He got into his taxi and left.
Saying he had no idea who the other two suspects under official investigation are, Paiz added: When I saw the photos of the inside of Liams hotel room nothing made any sense to me.
The Dove soap packet was there when I was in the hotel but I couldnt understand what it was for or the candles or the glass of water.
Over the weekend it emerged Argentinian police probing Liams death are still hunting the singers missing Rolex watch.
Liam arrives at the All Of Those Voices UK Premiere at Cineworld Leicester Square on March 16, 2023
A drone view shows the balcony on the Casa Sur Hotel from where Payne fell to his death
Paiz was not asked during his interview about the expensive timepiece.
The restaurant worker, said to have been sacked from his job after his implication in the ongoing criminal probe, is the second person linked to Liam to speak out.
Liams close friend Rogelio Roger Nores protested his innocence after being named locally last week as one of the trio under investigation.
Responding to the reports which identified him as one of the suspects linked to the drug accusations and allegations he abandoned Liam before his death, businessman Mr Nores who has previously been described as the singers manager, 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.
Ive given my statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness and I havent spoken to any police officer or prosecutor ever since.
I wasnt Liams manager. He was just my very dear friend.
He added: Im really heartbroken with this tragedy, and Ive been missing my friend every day.
The third suspect, who is yet to speak in public, has been named locally as a hotel worker called Ezequiel David Pereyra, 21.
Prosecutors said in their lengthy statement released last Thursday three men they did not identify by name were now being formally investigated on suspicion of abandoning a person who subsequently died and supplying and facilitating drugs.
A large crowd gathers in London to honour the former One Direction star
The statement described one as the person who routinely accompanied Liam during his stay in Buenos Aires.
Tests have shown the 31-year-old binged on alcohol and cocaine before he died and also had traces of an antidepressant in his system.
Prosecutors also made it clear the idea Liam had committed suicide had been ruled out and said he was in a state of semi or total unconsciousness as he fell to his death when he didnt know what he was doing.
They said of the hotel worker and the alleged drug dealer: The second suspect is a hotel employee who must respond for two proven supplies of cocaine to Liam Payne during the time he was in the hotel.
The third is also a drug dealer who is being investigated on suspicion of another two clearly proven supplies of cocaine at two different times on October 14.
Liams dad Geoff flew to Argentina two days after his son died and returned to the UK with his body last Thursday to help finalise funeral arrangements following a second visit to the makeshift shrine set up by fans outside the singers hotel.
The funeral is expected to take place in Liams home town of Wolverhampton.