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Liam Payne‘s family issued a strongly worded statement on Sunday (March 2) expressing their distress and disappointment at the way the press had reported on the circumstances of the late One Direction singer and solo star’s death last year.
“Liam’s death was an unspeakable tragedy. This is a time of tremendous grief and pain for those who knew and loved him,” read the statement, according to BBC News. “Liam ought to have had a long life ahead of him. Instead, [the singer’s son] Bear has lost his father, Geoff and Karen have lost their son, Ruth and Nicola have lost their brother and all of Liam’s friends and fans have lost someone they held very dear.”

The family added that they understand that the investigation into Payne’s death was “absolutely necessary, and the family recognises the work done by the Argentinian authorities. However, the family accepts the Court of Appeal’s decision to drop all charges. The constant media attention and speculation which has accompanied the process has exacted indescribable, lasting damage on the family, particularly on Liam’s son who is trying to process emotions which no seven-year-old should have to experience.”

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Their comments came just a few weeks after a court in Argentina dropped charges of criminal negligence against three of the five people indicted in connection with the singer’s passing after a fall from a third-story balcony at a hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina last October. The court’s ruling cleared Esteban Grassi, head receptionist at the CasaSur Hotel, Rogelio Nores, an Argentine-American businessman and friend of the singer who accompanied Payne on the trip, and Gilda Martin, the hotel’s manager. Two other men, Ezequiel Pereyra and Braian Paiz, are still facing charges for allegedly supplying drugs to Payne on the night he died.

It was Grassi who made two emergency calls prior to the accident, first reporting that a guest was “trashing the entire room” and later expressing concerns that the guest “may be in danger.” A report from Argentina’s National Criminal and Correctional Prosecutor’s Office No. 14 released last month showed that an autopsy found that Payne, 31, had “alcohol concentrations of up to 2.7 grams per liter in blood” at the time of his death, or a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.27%, which is more than three times the U.S. driving limit and just below a level that is considered life-threatening.

The Argentinian report said that in addition to the dangerous BAC, the autopsy revealed that Payne had cocaine metabolites and the medication sertraline (Zoloft) in his system before he died of what has been described as “multiple trauma and internal and external bleeding” from the 40-foot fall at the CasaSur Palermo Hotel.

In their statement, the family also wrote that they always wished “for privacy to grieve and asks that they be given the space and time to do so… Liam, you are so loved and missed.” The singer’s kin also gave thanks for a touching tribute paid to Payne at Saturday’s Brit Awards, led by his friend Jack Whitehall.

“He achieved so much in the short time that he was on this earth, and was not only a supremely gifted musician but an incredibly kind soul who touched the lives of everyone he came into contact with,” the comedian said before the screen filled with soundbites, portraits and performance video of Payne set to 1D’s “Little Things.”

“We joined in that celebration of his life and will forever remember the joy that his music brought to the world,” the Payne family wrote. Payne was buried in November in the U.K., with his funeral attended by all his former One Direction bandmates, girlfriend Katie Cassidy, and ex-partner Cheryl Cole, with whom he shared son Bear.