Liam Payne’s sister pens emotional tribute six months after One Direction singer’s death

Liam Payne‘s sister has shared an emotional tribute to the late One Direction singer half a year after his death.

• READ MORE: Liam Payne 1993-2024: One Direction star who helped spark a pop phenomenon

Payne tragically died on October 16 last year following a fatal fall from a third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Argentine prosecutor’s office later revealed that the 31-year-old’s cause of death was due to multiple traumas and internal and external bleeding.

Yesterday (April 16) marked six months since Payne’s untimely passing. In honour of Liam, his sister Ruth took to social media to share a tribute. “6 months, half a year without you?! My head is still screaming for you. Each morning on waking, I feel like I am plunged underwater, gasping for air that never comes to relieve me,” she wrote.

Ruth Gibbins continued: “Living without you is impossible, so for now, I exist. I’m learning to laugh or smile in the right places, but mate, it’s exhausting when all I want to do is speak to you. In the few moments I allow myself to feel love and not just loss, I can really smile at memories of us, like last year when we were doubled over laughing at us tring to make something we’d seen on YouTube, but memories are always tinged with sadness at how unfair it is we can’t make new ones.”

“I can sometimes hear you laughing at me walking around like Whoopi Goldberg in ‘Ghost’, looking for you everywhere I go,” she wrote. “I see you though, you’re always coming through in different ways to put me back on the right path. I can’t process what’s happened and the finality of it, you know I will never stop doing all I can for you. I miss you loudly, quietly and in all the moments in between.”

See the full post below.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Ruth Gibbins (@roo0990)

Following Payne’s death, five people were arrested and charged in connection to his death. Among those arrested were Payne’s friend Roger Nores, and two members of staff at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel, Gilda Martin and Esteban Grassi. All three of them were exonerated of all charges earlier this year.

Nores then filed a federal defamation lawsuit in Florida that alleged Geoff Payne – Liam’s father – had submitted a sworn declaration to Buenos Aires police, stating that Nores had “full responsibility for Liam’s care during this last period when I was not there.”

Nores denied the claim, with his original filing stating that while they were “dear friends”, he “never agreed to be and was never the caretaker of Liam.” Nores has since withdrawn his lawsuit against Geoff.

Meanwhile, last month a panel of judges reportedly denied an appeal to overturn the acquittal of Nores and the two hotel workers.

An appeal was filed on March 5, arguing there were flaws in the reasoning behind the decision and some of the information and evidence in the case had not been reviewed at the time of their acquittal.

However, the panel of judges firmly backed their exoneration, responding per Rolling Stone: “Rather than providing a specific and detailed critique of the Court’s reasoning, the appeal merely expresses disagreement with the evaluation of the collected evidence, repeatedly stating the need for further actions, which the Court had dismissed by noting that ‘Neither the parties suggested any relevant actions in this regard.’”

As such, the judges have concluded that the appeal “lacks the necessary merit to proceed”. The prosecutors who filed the appeal are now reportedly presenting their case to the Supreme Court, Cámara de Casación for further review.

Out of the five original suspects arrested and charged in Payne’s death, the two remaining personnel – Ezequiel Pereyra and Braian Paiz – are to remain behind bars while they await trial. For both of their parts, Pereyra and Paiz have been accused of suppling Payne with drugs – some of which were found in his body following the post-death toxicology report.

In November, Paiz broke his silence, admitting that he met the late One Direction singer twice before his death and confessed to taking drugs with him. However, he insisted that he never supplied Payne with narcotics nor accepted any money from him. Both Paiz and Pereyra could face four to 15 years in prison if found guilty. Paiz will also reportedly have to pay a $4,900 fine.

The post Liam Payne’s sister pens emotional tribute six months after One Direction singer’s death appeared first on NME.