British man, 31, who Jay Slater was with at AirBnb before vanishing insists missing teen ‘left the house alive’
Spanish police announced over the weekend that they would be ending their search after 12 days
A 31-YEAR-OLD British man who Jay Slater was with at an AirBnb before vanishing has insisted the missing teenager “left the house alive”.
Ayub Qassim invited Jay, 19, back to his rented holiday cottage after a rave in Tenerife hours before he vanished on June 17.
Qassim booked the £40-a-night holiday rental online under the name Ayub Abdul.
Jay is known to have gone back to the remote cottage – called Casa Abuela Tina – at 5am on the day he vanished.
But Qassim told that Jay “left the AirBnb alive” and stressed that he “hadn’t even done anything”.
The British tourist told the outlet: “The only comment I have to make is that Jay came to the house alive, and he left the house alive.
“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.”
Qassim is understood to be back at his family’s flat in Barking, east London.
He insisted that he had no argument with Jay and had even given him a blanket to sleep in.
Qassim, who was jailed nine years ago for being the mastermind behind a sophisticated operation to flood Wales with Class A drugs, said: “If I’d fallen out with him would he even come to mine?
“There were no problems. You’ve seen the last images of him with his red blanket around him.
“I don’t know if he had beef elsewhere because I don’t know him that well, I only know him through friends.”
Spanish police hunting for Jay have already spoken to Qassim and his unnamed friend – and both men have been described as “irrelevant” to their investigation.
Qassim confirmed he had spoken to the Spanish authorities in Tenerife and said he hasn’t “done anything wrong”.
But the 31-year-old said that foreign cops told him to not speak to anyone else which is why he’s been quiet.
Asked how well he knew Jay and what he thought of the conspiracy theories surrounding his disappearance, Qassim said: “Everyone knows each other. I’m not going to slander anyone.
“He’s a cool guy, Jay. He ain’t got a problem with me, I haven’t got a problem with him or his mates.”
Qassim added that he and Jay’s pals all just talk to each other and that “everything was sweet.”
Jay is known to have left the property at around 7.30am to catch a bus back towards his holiday apartment.
A witness said he asked her when the next bus was.
When she told him the next one wasn’t until 10am, he is believed to have attempted to walk the 11 hours it would have taken him to get back to his holiday let.
Qassim and the other unnamed man stayed an extra day after Jay vanished and spoke to Spanish cops.
They gave officers their details and fully cooperated with the investigation.
Jay was on his first ever holiday without his family when he vanished as he walked back to his accommodation last Monday morning.
The apprentice bricklayer has not been seen or heard from since calling his friend at 8.50am to tell her he was lost, in need of water and that his phone was low on battery.
Spanish police announced over the weekend that they would be ending their search after 12 days.
But Jay’s friends and family vowed to continue scouring the island’s Rural de Teno park, in the hope of finding him.
‘IN THE DARK’
It comes after Jay’s dad questioned why his teenage son ended up at a remote Airbnb with “two grown men” hours before he vanished.
Warren Slater, 58, believes the investigation into his son’s whereabouts should focus on the holiday let in the village of Masca in Tenerife.
Dad Warren, who was today scouring a narrow ravine near to the village of Masca where Jay was last seen, added that police are not telling the family much about their investigation.
He added that he has become “frustrated” and “angry” that more hasn’t been done to find his son.
He said: ”I’ve gone past the sadness bit and I’m angry, if that makes any sense. I’m angry that nothing’s happened.”
The lack of info has prompted Warren to become a detective himself.
“The police here are doing their own investigations. They’re not really telling us anything, they’re not telling you lot anything, we’re in the dark,” he said.
“All I’m doing is a Colombo bit myself. I mean he might be on here, you never know, but as a dad I don’t want him to be.
You just don’t disappear. He’s a young boy, he’s fit. He’s fitter than us all put together.
“He’s played football all his life, he’s fit as a flea. You just don’t disappear.
“If I left you here and then you just disappeared, do you not think police would be on my case?”
Warren said he won’t ever give up trying to find his missing son.
Five questions still unanswered in Jay Slater's disappearance
By James Halpin
Missing Rolex after ‘scuffle’
Police launched a new probe on Saturday morning over the theft of a Rolex watch just hours before Jay disappeared.
It is unclear exactly how Jay’s disappearance might be linked but one of Jay’s pals told detectives the alleged theft may have led to Jay wandering off on his own to try and find the watch.
The Rolex disappeared when a fight broke out at the club Jay was partying at with investigators questioning taxi drivers and bar staff present on the strip.
Police clear duo
Two mystery Brits who partied with Jay Slater on the night of his disappearance were labelled “not relevant” by investigators.
Investigator Mark Williams-Thomas said the men stayed with Jay at an Airbnb cottage in Tenerife before he vanished.
They are said to both be in their late 30s or early 40s and from Luton, Bedfordshire, with one going by the nickname “Johnny Vegas”.
The men were only briefly asked to speak with cops before being allowed to fly home to the UK.
Just six volunteers for ‘massive’ search
Yesterday, Tenerife cops launched what they called a “massive” new search with the help of specialist volunteers to find the 19-year-old Brit.
However, just six volunteers reportedly turned up, claimed Tiktoker Paul Arnott, 29, who flew in to help with the search.
Jay’s father Warren and older brother Zak were seen at the search site.
The area being searched is a 2000ft ravine that has a steep hiking trail traversing it down to the sea.
Mystery final phone calls
Jay’s last phone call to his pal Lucy Law has been shrouded in mystery with it springing up several questions.
The 18-year-old woman told reporters Jay had called her in a panic at around 8.30am on Monday June 17.
She recalled him saying he wasn’t able to catch a bus and was going to start walking back to his flat.
Jay told her his phone was almost out of power, that he had cut his leg on a prickly cactus and he badly needed a drink.
Pinging phone
Search teams narrowed their efforts to a small group of buildings close to where Jay’s phone last pinged, but found nothing last week.
Jay took a 45 minutes car journey with two men to an Airbnb near Masco in the Rural de Teno, a national park in the island’s north.
He posted a Snapchat picture at the £40-a-night digs at around 7.30am appearing to show him holding a cigarette and walking down some stone steps.
After deciding to leave the cottage, Jay rang Lucy before his mobile went dead at 8.50am near a hiking trail in the park.
He was with Jay’s brother Zak and the teen’s uncle who both joined the desperate hunt 17 days since Jay vanished.
It comes as a private investigator revealed Jay “stole a Rolex” before he vanished.
Jay is claimed to have admitted swiping the valuable timepiece in a Snapchat to pals after leaving a club in the early hours of June 17.
Today, ex-detective Mark Williams-Thomas made extraordinary claims about Jay in an eight-minute video.
He said the apprentice bricklayer, from Lancashire, posted a Snapchat the night before he vanished saying he had taken a Rolex worth £12,000 from an unknown person.
According to Mark – who worked on the Madeleine McCann case – the teen shared the post with pals while in a hire car.
The TV detective said that evidence suggests that Jay left the rental property “feeling scared”.
Jay’s GoFundMe is being used to fund volunteer sleuths including Brit amateur climber Paul Arnott.
