A close friend of Liam Payne who was accused of negligent manslaughter following the One Direction star’s death has spoken about the ‘anger’ he feels towards the singer.
Argentinian businessman Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, 35, was cleared last month of any involvement in the former One Direction star’s tragic death.
Payne died on October 16 last year after he fell from a Buenos Aires hotel balcony.
Nores was accused of having ‘abandoned’ Payne ‘knowing that he was incapable of fending for himself and knowing that he suffered from multiple addictions’, court documents showed.
Now, Nores has opened up about his conflicting feelings towards his close friend, who was found to have binged on alcohol and cocaine before his death.
‘As a close friend, I learnt with him that when someone has a drug problem, you do what you can and have the talks you need to have, but at the end of the day its their decision’, he said.
Nores also expressed that he had felt feelings of frustration towards the singer as he tried to come to terms with the tragedy.
‘When a tragedy like this happens and a close friend dies, part of the grieving process is getting angry and asking why they did it. The answer is they couldn’t help it, and they did everything they could, to be okay’.
‘Obviously, he was trying to do everything he could to be okay’, Nores added.
‘Sometimes you think, ‘If I had this conversation with him, maybe it could have changed things.’ But you can’t change the past, you have to process it.’
Nores also touched on Payne’s ‘supportive’ family members, noting how several had reached out to him to offer him support.
Nores’ comments come after Argentinian public prosecutors said they were considering fighting an appeal court decision to drop negligent manslaughter charges against him.
The businessman said last month he was ‘very happy’ after it emerged manslaughter charges had been sensationally dropped against him.
This comes after appeal court judges accepted he was just a friend of Payne’s who was helping him with his business affairs and not his agent with responsibility for keeping him off drugs.
A lower court judge charged him late last year along with two hotel workers accused of the same crime of negligent manslaughter, Esteban Grassi and Gilda Martín.
Payne’s death shocked the world and raised questions about how he had fallen from his balcony, with police launching a wide-ranging investigation into his death.
A 911 call the day the singer died warned that he had been acting aggressively and could have been under the influence of drugs and alcohol.
Esteban Grassi, the chief receptionist of the Casa Sur hotel had claimed Liam called down ‘insistently’ to ask for alcohol, and to ask where he could get cocaine – allegedly insulting a member of staff who said he could not help.
Two suspects accused of selling Liam cocaine, former waiter Braian Nahuel Paiz and suspended hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra, are still in prison following their failed appeals and have been told they face continued prosecution.
Nores has appeared unconcerned about a future appeal as he told La Nacion in his first comments since the public prosecution statement when asked about the decision to charge him: ‘Everything’s over. We left it behind.
‘I have no right to victimise myself, there are worse things in life.’
Nores has been previously quoted as saying he will continue his £8.1 million separate US defamation lawsuit against Liam’s grieving father Geoff unless he gets an apology.
He claims Geoff Payne made ‘false’ statements to Argentinian prosecutors following the singer’s death.
But in his interview with La Nacion, the businessman appeared to offer him an olive branch, saying of Geoff’s prosecution statement which is understood to have played an important part in judge Laura Bruniard’s decision to charge him with negligent manslaughter late last year: ‘Liam’s dad was trying to move on from his son’s death in the best way he could.
‘He was suffering, he didn’t understand what he was saying.’