Liam Payne's friend Roger Nores -- who was with him in his final chaotic days alive in Buenos Aires -- is suing Liam's father for allegedly smearing him in the media in the weeks after Liam died.
Category
✨
PeopleTranscript
00:00Liam Payne's good friend, Roger Norris, who has been charged in his death, which we've
00:06talked about whether that's a misguided prosecution there, but Roger is now fighting back, not
00:13against prosecutors, but Liam's father, Jeff Payne.
00:17He has filed a defamation lawsuit in federal court against Jeff Payne for things that Jeff
00:25said to not only the media, but particularly Roger's concerned with statements that Jeff
00:31Payne made to police and prosecutors in Buenos Aires.
00:36You may remember Jeff actually went to Buenos Aires after Liam's death and worked closely
00:42with authorities.
00:43Yes.
00:44And one of the things that he said in statements to the authorities is that Roger Norris was
00:50Liam's caretaker and that he was supposed to be the one who was responsible for keeping
00:56Liam safe.
00:57And Roger is fighting back against that in a big way.
01:02Yeah.
01:03You'll remember this is the centerpiece of the Argentinian officials prosecution of Roger
01:08Norris.
01:09And he's saying these two sworn statements were filled with lies and omissions.
01:12One of those, he says, is in August, he specifically had an email correspondence with Jeff Payne
01:18where he said, I can no longer look after Liam or have any responsibility for Liam.
01:23He says, I was never his caretaker.
01:24I was never a paid caretaker.
01:26I never provided him drugs.
01:28There was never any kind of legal obligation to be a caretaker.
01:31No guardianship or anything like that.
01:33Yeah.
01:34And look, and now Roger's sort of pointing the fingers at other people in Liam's life
01:37at this time.
01:38He says for the two months before he passed away, he was living with Kate Cassidy in Florida
01:42and in two hotels in Buenos Aires.
01:44And he says she would know more about his condition than me.
01:49He also says he used to have a bodyguard.
01:50And when that bodyguard was fired, Jeff Payne, his father, didn't hire a new one to look
01:54after Liam in any sort of capacity.
01:56So I'm certainly not to blame.
01:57And he said, at the end of the day, Liam is an independent adult and it's a tragedy, but
02:01I'm not at fault here.
02:03And he's now trashed my reputation by going to the authorities with this information.
02:06And look, we did a documentary, which is now on Hulu called Liam Payne, who's to blame.
02:13And I got to tell you, I spent a lot of time on this.
02:15I've talked to Roger Norris extensively.
02:18And many others.
02:19And there is a text that Liam sent to Roger the day he died saying, I need to get six
02:25grams.
02:26So, yeah, there's something there.
02:29But at the same time, Liam told him to skedaddle that day and that Liam was doing all sorts
02:38of things in the hotel.
02:39Roger checked in on him three times.
02:41The question, did Roger have any legal duty to do anything more than he did?
02:46The authorities seem to think he did.
02:49I don't understand.
02:50And I think that's Roger's point, is that the authorities think that based on what Jeff
02:53told the authorities.
02:56And Roger's saying, look, I was never an employee.
02:58I was never paid.
03:00And he does acknowledge that he and Liam were very close.
03:04They were close.
03:05They were supportive of each other as friends, but it was not a job.
03:11It was never a job.
03:12There was never a formal obligation.
03:14So Roger says, but I got to tell you, based on everything I know, that's the way I see
03:19it, too.
03:20My name is Doria Orlean.
03:22I'm from Long Island, New York.
03:23My deepest condolences to the Payne family.
03:25As a One Direction fan, this tragedy is truly heartbreaking.
03:28But I believe it's unfair to solely blame Roger for Liam's death.
03:32Although Liam was an adult, I feel like many people in his circle had a play in taking
03:36responsibilities to support him.
03:38So blaming one person just truly ignores many factors in this case.
03:43Yeah, I get it.