The cells are overcrowded with deteriorating steel bars and devoid of natural light. The walls exude dampness, and the hallways are strewn with charred mattresses set ablaze during inmate riots.

Inmates typically remain for only a few weeks in this grim Argentinian detention center before being moved to official prisons beyond Buenos Aires. However, 25-year-old Braian Nahuel Paiz has been stuck here for over eight months, having been accused of providing drugs to singer Liam Payne two days prior to his death a year ago—a crime punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

Nevertheless, due to ongoing disputes among the authorities over whether the case should be handled by the federal system or local jurisdiction, Paiz remains uncertain about when he will face trial.

‘If you ask me when it will start, it’s impossible to know,’ the young man’s lawyer, Juan Pablo Madeo Facente, told the Daily Mail this week. ‘There are no deadlines. It could take another year.’

But for Braian Paiz, a working-class boy from an impoverished neighbourhood in southern Buenos Aires, another year could be tantamount to a death sentence.

For according to Facente, his client has already been brutally beaten by fellow inmates for being gay, denied urgent medical care when he contracted a urinary tract infection and now relies on a dangerous cocktail of anti-depressants just to get through the night.

Paiz has previously claimed to have been burned with boiling water and hit with a canister by fellow inmates, who even threatened to electrocute him: ‘I live with 15 people in a cell and they treat me like a rat,’ he admitted earlier this summer.

To make matters worse, Paiz has long protested his innocence and, while he admits providing the One Direction star with cocaine, he denies accepting money for the drugs – which is what he has been charged with.

‘He is totally convinced, as are we,’ says Facente, ‘and we believe that most people would understand too: he is innocent. Or at least he shouldn’t be held responsible to the extent he is now.’

So just what did happen between Paiz and Payne during their ‘intimate’ night together last October?

Today, the Daily Mail publishes for the first time – in Braian’s own words – the heart-stopping minute-by-minute account of the hours the pair spent together at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel two days before the singer plunged to his death from a third-floor balcony on October 16 aged just 31. Of course, we cannot account for veracity of the information, but undoubtedly the following narrative, taken from Braian Paiz’s witness statement given to police last year, provides the most compelling insight yet into Liam Payne’s state of mind in the days leading up to his tragic fall.

This is the story of the pop star and the pauper, and how an intense – yet ultimately ill-fated liaison – destroyed both their lives.

The pair first met on October 2 last year at the exclusive Cabana Las Lilas restaurant in upmarket Puerto Madero, where Paiz was working as a waiter.

Braian’s second shift of the day began at 7pm. Over the years, Las Lilas has hosted everyone from French President Emmanuel Macron to tennis supremo Roger Federer, so he was used to serving famous faces.

But when the restaurant’s receptionist, Gianella, told Braian at 10:30pm that former One Direction star Liam Payne was seated at table 75, the then 24-year-old was immediately starstruck. For Braian, an aspiring actor, was a huge fan of the British boyband, which had four No1 hits before splitting ten years ago.

‘I noticed he was strange,’ Braian recalled. ‘Like he was distracted… He also walked unsteadily.’

Over the next hour, Liam went to the bathroom ‘constantly’, which meant walking past Braian’s allocated tables. ‘We made eye contact almost every time,’ the waiter recalled.

Around 11:30pm, after Liam’s table – which included his girlfriend Kate Cassidy and close friend Roger Nores – had finished eating, the pop star approached Braian and, bizarrely, asked him where the bathroom was.

‘I knew he already knew where it was. I got nervous, and just smiled… Liam stared at me. I carried on with my work but I didn’t look away.’

It was clear then that there was a connection between the two. The die had been cast and, though they didn’t know it at the time, their fates were to be entwined from that moment forward.

Close to midnight, as the restaurant was closing, Liam spoke with Braian again. ‘He asked me if I spoke English, to which I told him I didn’t, but that I understood [the language quite well]. He took me a little away from my colleagues and asked if I had cocaine.’

Braian told him he couldn’t help but when he told his colleagues about the awkward exchange, they said that the singer had been ‘asking everyone’ for narcotics all evening, was already ‘really high’ and had purchased an entire bottle of whisky for himself at the end of his meal.

‘I walked around without knowing what to do,’ Braian continues in his statement, ‘still processing the fact that I had spoken to Liam Payne. I had the feeling that I had some sort of chance to be with him, even if it was just to talk a little and I couldn’t waste the moment.’

Adrenaline pumping, Braian wrote his Instagram handle on a scrap of paper and brazenly stuffed it into Liam’s hand as he left the restaurant: ‘We made eye contact,’ Braian reveals, ‘With my right hand, I gave him the paper, and he received it with both hands.’

The waiter didn’t have to wait long for Liam to contact him. An hour later – at around 1am – Liam messaged Braian over Instagram using the handle ‘KateCasss7’, a so-called ‘burner’ account set up in Kate Cassidy’s name. Again Payne asked for drugs, again Paiz told him no.

‘Then we had a flirty conversation on Instagram,’ Paiz explains, ‘which we continued via iMessage, which is where he gave me the address of the hotel where he was staying.’

At this point, Payne was at the Palacio Duhau Park Hyatt Hotel near to Las Lilas and, when Braian went to the hotel, Liam invited him up to his room.

‘During this time,’ Paiz recalled, ‘we took a photo. He showed me new music he hadn’t released yet, and we drank alcohol. I also saw him taking drugs. He offered them to me repeatedly, but I didn’t accept, since in some cases I didn’t even know what drugs they were.’

Paiz left after around one hour and returned home. The following morning, he excitedly turned on his phone only to discover that the account ‘KateCasss7’ had blocked him. Paiz was devastated. And yet, 11 days later, on October 14, a mysterious Instagram account going by the name ‘Paul’ started commenting on Braian’s posts and urging him to check his direct messages. It was Payne. And again he was asking for drugs.

‘He wanted “three grams”,’ Paiz recalled. The waiter didn’t reply and, then a short while later, his phone rang: ‘Hi, it’s Liam. Can you help me? I’m in Argentina. I need six grams. Do you think you can get them? I’ll give you $100. Do you know any girls we can bring here?’

In his statement, Braian admits: ‘He ended up convincing me to get [drugs] for him. And, in all honesty, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see him again. That’s why I agreed to do it.’

Via messaging app Telegram, Paiz purchased two grams of cocaine and, by 3am, was en route to the CasaSur Palermo – where Payne had moved after being ejected from the Park Hyatt for unruly behaviour.

The scene in Liam’s hotel suite – room 310 – was shocking. Drug paraphernalia, including instruments for smoking crack cocaine, was everywhere. Braian realised Liam was already high and must have been obtaining drugs from other sources. No sooner had Paiz settled in the room than there was a knock at the door. After Payne answered it, he and a hotel employee stood in the doorway speaking in hushed tones. Eventually, says Braian, the singer ‘closes the door, makes a “f*** you” gesture with his finger, and laughs.’

It is unclear what was discussed but Payne then gestured towards the smoke alarm and opened the window, insinuating he may have been smoking something inside and activated the detector.

The pair started sipping whisky. ‘Then he asks me if I’ve ever smoked crack, and I tell him no, just marijuana. Back then, we were both having a good time.’

The good times, however, were only just getting started.

‘We started talking about music,’ Braian continues. ‘He showed me music on his computer again. I also showed him some of my drawings that were in my cell phone gallery.’

An hour later Braian asked if Liam wanted to be left alone, but the singer insisted his new friend – who he was conversing with via Google Translate – stayed. It wasn’t long, however, before the booze ran dry and Payne sent Paiz to reception to order ‘five bottles of Jack Daniels [presumably miniatures] and two Cokes’.

When Braian returned, he saw Liam holding his phone before quickly dropping it. Assuming that Liam wanted to use the phone, Braian unlocked it and handed it over to him.

At 4:50am the drinks were delivered. And that is when things start to get very strange indeed.

‘We were on his computer,’ Braian continues. ‘He showed me photos he had saved of some people, mostly girls… Then he showed me two escorts, one brunette and one blonde… He showed me messages he’d received and photos of himself. He asked me if I would help him shave, and I said yes. Then he took a shower, and I waited for him to finish.’

Paiz has since admitted that something ‘intimate’ occurred between the two and his witness statement offers a further tantalising insight into what was clearly an intense encounter. But Paiz has previously insisted on Instagram (at the end of last year) that they did not have sex.

By 7am, Payne’s mood had changed. ‘He looked at me and started talking quickly,’ Paiz continues. ‘But I couldn’t understand him. He took out his Rolex and gave it to me. Confused by the situation, I left it on the bed. He didn’t like that gesture and, angrily – not aggressively – said, “Take it,” and put it on my left wrist.’

Payne, clearly distressed and mumbling expletives, then tried to give Braian a pair of grey jogging bottoms and a white T-shirt with green print.

Eventually, in Paiz’s own words, the pair ‘went back to bed’ where Payne produced a notebook and ‘asked me if he could draw me’.

As the extraordinary morning they had spent together drew to a close, Paiz prepared to leave. Payne went once again to the bathroom. Noticing the star sitting absently on the loo with the door open, Paiz asked if he was OK.

‘Leave the door open,’ was Payne’s bizarre reply.

Shortly afterwards Paiz took a taxi home. But no sooner had Paiz closed his front door than Payne messaged again asking him to secure yet more drugs. Paiz obeyed, ordering cocaine via Telegram, while Payne jumped in a taxi and headed to Paiz’s address.

Paiz claims that when the drugs arrived he was ‘suspicious of the quality’ and decided not to give them to Payne for fear of harming his new friend. Unfortunately Liam did not appreciate the thought.

‘He left angry that I hadn’t given him anything. In fact, he looked at me and shook his head “No”. And that was the last time I saw him, on October 14 at 9am.’

Throughout the day, Payne sent further messages to Paiz regarding the procurement of drugs, but each one went unanswered.

Two days later, shortly after 5pm, the pop star was found dead, having fallen in a state of semi-consciousness from his third-floor balcony at the CasaSur Palermo. The toxicology report found a cocktail of drugs in his system, including cocaine, sertraline, an anti-depressant medication, and alcohol.

As I revealed last year, after discovering some heartbreaking images on the hotel’s CCTV, in the minutes before his fall, Payne had been carried upstairs by three hotel workers, including chief receptionist Esteban Grassi and senior manager Gilda Martin. Confined to his room, it appears likely he tried to escape by climbing down the outside of the building, something he’d reportedly often done during his One Direction days.

In the months following Payne’s death, both Grassi and Martin were cleared of any wrongdoing. Only Paiz and a hotel worker named Ezequiel Pereyra remain in custody, both separately accused of selling drugs to Payne.

But why only those two? ‘Because the person who died was Liam,’ lawyer Facente told me this week. ‘If it had been someone else, probably nothing like this would have happened. They need to have someone to hold responsible.’

Meanwhile, Andres Esteban Madrea, head of the National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No14, insists that ‘the accused, Paiz, delivered narcotics for money to the named person [Payne] for his consumption, at least twice’ on October 14.

Clearly, Paiz disputes this. In a chilling conclusion to his witness statement, he admits: ‘Obviously, I didn’t do it for money, but simply to be able to spend time with him… I have nothing to hide.’

And yet, with no date set for Paiz’s trial, his innocence or otherwise is almost irrelevant as he sits out the months in jail.

Facente told the Daily Mail that a request to have Paiz released from jail and put under house arrest was recently denied. Facente subsequently suggested Paiz be moved to a formal prison; this would also allow him to be moved to a special wing for those at physical risk due to their sexuality. And yet, extraordinarily, Paiz declined to pursue this option. Why? ‘Because he wants to be close to his mother,’ Facente reveals poignantly.

And so Paiz remains in a jail just a few hundred yards from the British Cemetery in central Buenos Aires, the place where Liam Payne’s body was embalmed prior to repatriation last year.

A month after his death, a hundred mourners came to pay their respects. And the part it played in this tragic saga is immortalised in the form of a bench embossed with a smart bronze plaque, which – in black lettering – carries the words: ‘Liam James Payne’.