Liam Payne: Waiter accused of supplying drugs to former One Direction star speaks out

A waiter accused of supplying Liam Payne with drugs has insisted he did nothing wrong.

Tests showed the One Direction singer had alcohol and cocaine in his body when he died in a fall from a balcony.

Braian Nahuel Paiz, who had met Payne two weeks previously, admitted twice visiting his Buenos Aires hotel to take drugs.

But Paiz insisted he never supplied the 31-year-old star with narcotics or accepted money from him before the tragedy on October 16.

Paiz, 24, who appeared on Argentine TV at the weekend, claimed he met Payne at the restaurant where he worked in the upmarket neighbourhood of Puerto Madero.

He said he exchanged contact details with the singer as he dined with his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and two others.

The pair arranged a meeting at the hotel where the singer was staying.

“I never supplied Liam with drugs,” he said.

“Liam’s first contact with me was at my place of work. We swapped details and saw each other later that night. He came down from his hotel room to fetch me because I had got lost.”

Naming the hotel where they first arranged to meet as the “Hyatt in Palermo”, he said: “We got together there and he showed me some of the music he was going to bring out.

“I’ve heard people saying he was taking drugs but the truth is that when he got to the restaurant he was already under the effects of drugs and he didn’t eat anything. 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.”

The TV programme showed viewers a photo of him and Payne, which was said to have been taken during their first hotel meeting.

Paiz said they next met on October 13 at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, three days before Liam’s death.

He said they took drugs, but insisted: “I never gave drugs to him or accepted any money.”

Prosecutors said last Thursday that three men were being investigated on suspicion of abandoning a person who subsequently died, and of supplying and facilitating drugs.

Payne’s close friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores protested his innocence after being named locally as one of the trio.

The businessman — who has been described as the singer’s manager — said: “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 never have imagined something like this would happen.

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

The third suspect, who is yet to speak in public, has been named locally as a hotel worker called Ezequiel David Pereyra, 21.