Liam Payne left behind a fortune worth £24.3m and died without a will, court documents show.

The singer, 31, died in October last year after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.

Documents show Cheryl, his former partner and mother of his son Bear, is an administrator for his estate.

This means she will be legally responsible for his money, property, and possessions.

The former Girls Aloud singer, 41, could place the fortune in trust for Bear as UK rules of intestacy state that a person’s spouse, and then any children they have, are first claim to the estate.

Music industry lawyer Richard Mark Bray has also been given administrator duties.

According to the Letters of Administration, the gross value of Payne’s estate amounts to £28,594,888.

The net value, the total after debts and expenses are paid, is £24,279,728.

Court documents state that the former One Direction star fell from the balcony of his room on the third floor of the Casa Sur Hotel in Buenos Aires at about 5.10pm on 16 October.

Toxicology tests revealed that before his death, he had traces of alcohol, cocaine, and a prescription antidepressant in his body.

His cause of death was “polytrauma” from multiple injuries and internal and external bleeding, a postmortem found.

Manslaughter charges against Payne’s friend Rogelio “Roger” Nores, hotel operator Gilda Martin, and head of reception Esteban Grassi were dropped following an appeal in February.

Hotel employee Ezequiel Pereyra and waiter Braian Paiz are still facing prosecution for allegedly supplying Payne with drugs, having been charged in December. Supplying drugs in Argentina carries a sentence of up to 15 years in prison.

At the Brit Awards in March, Payne was remembered with a video montage which showed him with his family, as well as a clip from his time on The X Factor and with One Direction.

A man whose dismembered body was found in a suitcase had raped and blackmailed a teenager, a court has heard.

The remains of Albert Alfonso, 62, and Paul Longworth, 71, were found in a suitcase and trunk which had been left near the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol in July 2024.

Yostin Mosquera is on trial at the Old Bailey in London accused of murdering and dismembering Mr Alfonso and Mr Longworth.

The 35-year-old denies both murders but has admitted the manslaughter of Mr Alfonso.

A witness, giving evidence under the pseudonym James Smith, appeared at the trial by video link on Wednesday.

Mr Smith said he met Mr Alfonso nearly 20 years ago when he was around 17 or 18 and had gone to his flat for drinks.

He said he remembered drinking heavily and then waking up with a “banging headache”.

“I said to him, ‘what’s happened?’ – he showed me a video of me on all fours and he was penetrating me,” he told the court.

“I didn’t know what to do. I was mortified. At this point, I didn’t know my sexuality – I was confused and scared.”

He said Mr Alfonso told him if he did “favours”, the video would never be shared.

Under cross-examination, defence barrister Tom Little KC asked: “Does it cross your mind, looking back, that you were raped?”

“Now, yes,” Mr Smith replied.

“And does it cross your mind that your drink may have been spiked?”, the barrister asked.

“Now, yes,” the witness responded.

“Does it cross your mind that you were groomed by Albert Alfonso?”, Mr Little asked.

“Now, yes,” Mr Smith said.

After the alleged incident, the two met regularly, with Mr Alfonso paying Mr Smith around £150 for each sexual encounter, the court heard.

During the COVID pandemic, the witness said he became closer with Mr Alfonso and began spending time with Mr Longworth.

Mr Smith told the court he was later introduced to Mosquera.

He said the relationship between Mosquera and Mr Alfonso was “good – very good”.

“I didn’t see anything that seemed like they disliked each other,” he added.

He described Mr Longworth as someone who “wouldn’t hurt a fly”.

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Mr Smith said the final time he saw Mr Alfonso and Mr Longworth was on a Friday evening before the bodies were discovered.

“Albert gave me a hug, Paul gave me a hug, and that was the last I heard of those two,” he said.

The trial continues.

“Illegal drugs” have been found in staff lockers at Wales’s largest hospital with “no consequences”, a review has found.

Reviewers heard examples of people behaving in a “dysregulated way”, such as engaging in “outright criminal behaviour including theft and illegal drugs”.

A report published on Wednesday found female members of theatre staff at the University Hospital of Wales were unable to leave “anything of value in the changing room due to the regularity of the theft”.

The review noted examples of “money, phones, computers and clothing going missing”, which had “created an atmosphere of fear”.

The health board in charge of the hospital apologised following the findings and vowed to make “urgent improvements”.

The comprehensive review of theatres at the Cardiff hospital was commissioned by the health board’s chief operating officer and carried out by two senior colleagues, after the results of an internal staff survey last summer.

Comments made by staff in that initial survey were “concerning” and related to “conduct issues, poor behaviour and gave a clear perception of a disengaged workforce with low morale”, according to the report.

The review, which concluded on 29 April, made 66 recommendations relating to areas including patient safety and theatre efficiency.

It found a perception among staff that there were “no consequences for poor behaviour”.

Over a third of theatre staff took part in the review, and Cardiff and Vale University Health Board acknowledged it had “uncovered a number of concerning themes”.

‘Damning’

Andrew RT Davies, a Conservative Senedd member for South Wales Central, said the review’s findings were a “damning indictment” of the Welsh government’s record and that “criminality and chaos” had been “tolerated”.

Mabon ap Gwynfor, Plaid Cymru’s health spokesperson, described the report as “damning and serious”.

Speaking in the Senedd on Wednesday afternoon, Welsh health secretary Jeremy Miles said the findings of the review were “shocking”.

“I’m planning to meet very soon with the chair of the health board,” he said.

“I know that they are taking the report seriously. I also know there are steps already under way.”

In a joint statement, the health board’s chief executive Suzanne Rankin and chief operating officer Paul Bostock said the board would “consider the findings” and develop a “detailed action plan to make urgent improvements”.

They added that, of the more than 30,000 surgical procedures carried out in Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan annually, the number of incidents was “proportionally very small”.

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Ms Rankin and Mr Bostock were “pleased” the report acknowledged “many of the highly skilled, experienced and knowledgeable individuals who work within the theatres department”.

“It is important to us as a health board that we retain the trust and confidence of patients and their loved ones who put their health in our hands and rely upon us to do no harm,” they added.

“We are very sorry for the distress and concern this will cause, and we want to reassure the public that we will take the necessary steps to address the concerns raised.”