Liam Payne’s harrowing question for hotel staff he branded ‘useless’ – bombshell texts revealed
Liam Payne hit out at staff at his Argentina hotel after they refused to deliver drugs to him after making several calls to the reception desk
Liam Payne called receptionists at the hotel where he fell to his death to request alcohol “all the time” and ask where he could buy cocaine, a senior employee has claimed in a shocking new insight into the singer’s hours.
A bellboy who took him a courtesy platter of fruit shortly after he checked into the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires also told bosses the artist had insulted him after asking him whether he could get him cocaine and receiving a ‘no’ for an answer. Esteban Grassi, the chief receptionist who made a 999 call requesting urgent medical assistance for Liam before his drink and drug-fuelled balcony plunge and is now under formal investigation along with four other suspects in an ongoing court probe, made the stunning claims.
Respected Argentinian news portal Todo Noticias published WhatsApp messages it said Grassi, one of the three men pictured carrying Liam back up to his third-floor room from the hotel lobby shortly before he died, had handed in to court investigators. One of the text exchanges, from a person registered in Esteban’s phone as Santiago Benitez Bellboy AM, said: “Hello Esteban how are you? Sorry for bothering you but I wanted to let you know about a little situation I had with the person in room 310. When I went to hand him a guest amenity and welcome him to the hotel and Argentina, he invited me into his room (which was a complete mess) and asked me if I could get him cocaine.
“I told him, ‘I’m sorry sir, but neither I or any other staff can help you with that type of service’ to which he replied that I was useless and told me to get out of his sight. I felt a bit threatened because he didn’t behave very politely.” Appearing to reference another hotel worker identified locally as one of the five men under investigation, head of security Gilda Martin, the message from the bellboy continued: “I’m going to tell Gilda this too so you’re both aware and there’s no misunderstandings in case this man mentions my name again at some point in his stay, because he asked me what my name was. I’m just telling you and Gilda this.”
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Getty Images)
The exchange ended with Mr Grassi trying to reassure the junior hotel worker by telling him “not to worry” about what Liam had said.
Mr Grassi also told investigators of Liam’s stay at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in the Argentinian capital, according to Todo Noticias: “I understand he was more active at night, that he ran reception repeatedly to ask for alcohol all the time and ask where he could get drugs, specifically cocaine.” He went on to claim he acted as a translator for the two female escorts Liam spent time with before he died because they didn’t speak English and the singer didn’t speak Spanish.
Confirming earlier reports that the former One Direction singer asked for 300 dollars and alcohol when they went up to his room, Mr Grassi said: “Liam asked me to act as translator. “That’s when they tell me he had to pay them but they didn’t specify why.
“They told me he owed them 5,000 dollars but it seemed strange to me because he had asked me previously for 300 dollars and although I’m not an expert about these things, the amount of money they were asking for seemed a bit excessive to me.”
Screenshots of WhatsApp messages exchanged with one of the women said to have come from Liam’s phone, an American mobile phone number with the 561 southern Florida area code, were also published by Todo Noticias which said the sex worker had showed Mr Grassi the conversation to prove he owed them the money.
The singer was last seen just moments before his death in the hotel lobby (
Image:
America TV)
The mobile phone user identified as Liam by the news portal sent a link to the singer’s Instagram in an initial message and asked in English ‘Wanna play’ before adding after making a video call that wasn’t picked up: “I have all day, I’d gift you 5,000 US dollars.”
The person receiving the messages sent back a Whatsapp location and wrote ‘Are you coming?’ but received the reply: “You come to my hotel, we party, just me and u.’ After sending a voice message, the man Todo Noticias identified as Liam wrote, ‘Do you want to bring her? in an apparent reference to the second female escort, and added: “Casa Sur, I’m just gunna clean my room.”
The Whatsapp exchange showed the woman had asked for “5,000 US dollars both” and the man identified as Liam replied: ‘Hmmm. That’s a lot huh, let’s discuss’ but then wrote ‘Ok’ and referred to a bank transfer after the other person replied: It’s the whole day the two of us together.’ In a blow-by-blow account of Liam’s last minutes alive after the singer went back down to reception after allegedly smashing up his room, Mr Grassi said in a statement to investigators which Todo Noticias published yesterday and will add to the concern about the decision to move him from the lobby following the publication last month of a harrowing photo showing him being carried back up to his third floor suite: “He was staring blankly, in a totally drunken state. It was clear he wasn’t okay.
“When we opened the door we went in behind him and he just walked around.
He had smashed his hotel room TV (
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Buenos Aires Police/AFP via Gett)
Liam had been ‘starring’ into space in the hotel lobby (
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WireImage)
“That’s when I saw everything was broken, vases, lamps, his clothes strewn everything around the room, the towels stained with wine, broken bottles. I didn’t see blood or any type of drug.” Claiming Liam fainted several times “because he was very drunk” in the minutes leading up to his third-floor balcony plunge, he added: “We heard he was once again smashing up everything inside, as if he was throwing or kicking things.
“We stayed outside trying to hear if things were calming down or how the situation was evolving and how we could intervene.” Saying he learnt about Liam’s fatal plunge after making his 999 call, he recalled: “One of the sales lads appeared and told me, ‘He threw himself off the balcony’
“I asked him if he was alive and he said he didn’t know, that he’d fallen onto the restaurant terrace and heard the noise, but no-one had seen how he’d fallen.” It was not made clear if Mr Grassi’s account of Liam’s last hours came from a statement he had given earlier in the inquiry or came out of a new quiz after he was told he would be questioned again ahead of possible charges and should hire a defence lawyer.
That quiz had been scheduled for next week according to earlier reports. Argentine media reported earlier this week the number of suspects in the ongoing Liam Payne probe had jumped to five after two hotel workers named locally as Mr Grassi and Gilda Martin were told they were also now under formal investigation.
A restaurant worker denies handing Liam drugs but admitted to being ‘intimate’ with Payne
The three people who had earlier been told they were being investigated ahead of possible charges have been identified as Liam’s close friend Rogelio ‘Roger’ Nores, former hotel worker Ezequiel David Pereyra, and Braian Nahuel Paiz. Waiter Paiz, accused of being Liam’s ‘drug dealer’ told journalist Guillermo Panizza on Telefe Noticias last month he had consumed marijuana and Liam had taken cocaine during their second hotel rendezvous shortly before the singer’s death.
But he insisted: “I never took drugs to him or accepted any money. I have messages where he’s offering me money because he was apparently used to offering money for everything but I never accepted anything.” Mr Nores had previously protested his innocence after being named locally 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, the businessman who has been described as the singer’s 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.
“I’ve given my statement to the prosecutor on October 17 as a witness and I haven’t spoken to any police officer or prosecutor ever since. I wasn’t Liam’s manager. He was just my very dear friend.” Ezequiel David Pereyra has yet to make any public comment.
Prosecutors said in a lengthy statement released on November 7 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. The statement described one as the person who “routinely accompanied Liam during his stay in Buenos Aires.”
Tests have shown the singer 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 from his hotel balcony when he “didn’t 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.”
