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Speculation over Liam Payne’s funeral has fans urging people to stay away from private send-off
The body of singer and former One Direction member Liam Payne has been repatriated back to the UK after Argentinian authorities conducted post-mortem testing.
Payne’s father Geoff Payne accompanied his son’s body on a flight from Buenos Aires to London on Wednesday.
Authorities had been investigating the death of the singer, who died after falling from a third-floor hotel balcony on October 16.
His death prompted an outpouring of grief from his millions of fans around the world.
When is Liam Payne’s funeral?
No plans for an official public memorial service have been announced.
However, speculation about the star’s funeral has been published by some British tabloid media outlets.
It’s prompted some fans to urge others not to try to attend private services for the star.
One Direction fans are encouraging each other to give Payne’s family and friends space to grieve in private. (Reuters: Stephanie Lecocq)
Fans told not to attend
“A few articles have stated how the funeral will be private and low-key so please, let his loved ones mourn in peace and privacy,” an X account called Remembering Liam Payne posted on the the social media platform.
“Memorials were for the fans, his funeral is for the people who knew him personally.”
Fans began laying flowers and tributes to the star at a statue outside a church in the English city of Wolverhampton, where Payne grew up.
But they’ll be moved to a new location on Friday so the city can hold its Remembrance Day service.
The pleas come amid news three people have been charged in connection to his death.
Who has been charged over Liam Payne’s death?
They haven’t been named by Argentinian prosecutors.
But authorities said the trio was made up of:
- a suspected drug dealer
- a hotel employee who may have provided Payne with cocaine
- a person who was close to Payne
A tribute set up for Payne in Manchester, UK. (Reuters: Phil Noble)
What have they been charged with?
All three have been accused of playing a role in supplying Payne with drugs.
- The suspected drug dealer is accused of supplying Payne with cocaine on October 14
- The hotel employee is accused of supplying Payne with drugs twice during his stay
- The third person — described as someone close to Payne — is charged with supplying him narcotics and “abandonment of a person followed by death”
What was Liam Payne’s cause of death?
Injuries from his fall from a third-floor balcony of the CasaSur Hotel into a courtyard below.
An autopsy found he died after sustaining “multiple traumas” and “internal and external haemorrhaging” from the fall.
It ruled out both self-harm and the “physical intervention of third parties”.
Geoff Payne, pictured at a memorial outside the Casa Sur Hotel, accompanied his son’s body back to the UK this week. (AP: Mario De Fina)
“Payne was either not fully conscious or was in a state of markedly diminished or absent consciousness at the time of the fall,” the report said.
A post-mortem report found he had traces of the following in his system when he died:
- Alcohol
- Cocaine
- A prescription antidepressant
He was found dead after hotel staff called emergency services to report “a guest who is overwhelmed by drugs and alcohol, and destroying his room”.
Payne had spoken publicly about struggles with substance abuse and the pressures of teenage stardom.
ABC with AFP