A coroner’s court in the UK has opened an inquest into the death of Liam Payne, a member of hit boyband One Direction, who died on 16 October after falling from the third-floor balcony of a hotel in Buenos Aires. The singer’s medical cause of death has been confirmed as “polytrauma”, a term for multiple traumatic injuries to a person’s body and organ systems, according to Dr Roberto Victor Cohen, who confirmed Payne’s death. However, formal confirmation of how the 31-year-old died may take some time, the court was told.
The hearing was also told that Payne was formally identified “with the assistance of the funeral directors in Buckinghamshire”. Senior Coroner Crispin Butler said during the hearing that while there were ongoing investigations in Argentina into the circumstances of Payne’s death, which he had no legal jurisdiction over, procuring the relevant information to address how he died may take some time. The inquest into Payne’s death in the UK has been adjourned until a pre-inquest review on 6 November, the coroner’s court said.
Five people in Argentina have been charged in connection with Payne’s death. The hotel’s manager, Gilda Martin, and its receptionist, Esteban Grassi, as well as Payne’s friend Roger Nores have been charged with manslaughter, while Ezequiel Pereyra, who also worked at the hotel, and Braian Paiz, a waiter, have been charged with supplying drugs.
In November, the prosecutor’s office in Argentina said toxicology tests had revealed traces of alcohol, cocaine and a prescription antidepressant in Payne’s body. A post-mortem examination determined his cause of death as “multiple trauma” and “internal and external haemorrhage”, as a result of the fall from the hotel balcony. According to the prosecutor’s office, medical reports also suggested Payne may have fallen in a state of semi or total unconsciousness and that he did not know what he was doing nor have any comprehension of his actions. Payne was once of the most recognisable names in pop after appearing on The X Factor and rising to fame with the boyband One Direction in the 2010s before the band went on an indefinite hiatus in January 2016
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