Man who was with missing Lancashire teen Jay Slater at Airbnb speaks out
A man who was with missing Lancashire teen Jay Slater at an Airbnb the night before he went missing has spoken out.
Ayub Qassim invited Jay back to the remote holiday cottage near the village of Masca after a night out in Playa de las Americas.
The 19-year-old went missing after he left the holiday accommodation early on the Monday morning to catch a bus back towards his own accommodation on the other side of the island. He told the Mail Online: “He came to my Airbnb alive and he left my Airbnb alive.
He added: “I let the geezer stay at mine because he had nowhere else to go, his friends had all left him.
“I know Jay, through friends, I’m not going to bring someone back to mine if I don’t know them.
“I’m doing the geezer a favour and now my face is all over the news. It’s a bit mental. I haven’t even done anything.”
He insisted they had no argument and he had even given Jay a blanket to sleep in.
He and his friend - who was also staying at the AirBnb - extended their trip for a day to speak with police before travelling back to the UK.
Spanish police have described the pair as “irrelevant” to the investigation.
The 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle disappeared on the island on Monday, June 17.
He was last heard from around 8.15am when he phoned friend Lucy Law and told her he planned to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus, a journey expected to take around 11 hours on foot. He had stayed the night at a holiday rental with two men he met the night before.
He said he was lost in the mountains, needed a drink of water and had only 1% battery on his phone. He has not been seen or heard from since.
In an emotional statement, his family described him as a “beautiful” boy who had been studying for an apprenticeship at the time he disappeared.
Sniffer dogs had been flown in from Madrid to help search the Spanish island’s ravines, rivers and mountains.
However, police have now confirmed they have called off the search for him after two weeks, but that detectives are continuing to pursue several lines of inquiry.