Man who Jay Slater visited at Airbnb issues statement

vt-author-image

By James Kay

Article saved!Article saved!

A man who was with Jay Slater at an Airbnb the night before he disappeared has spoken out.

Screenshot 2024-07-03 at 16.35.08.jpgJay Slater vanished after a night out in Tenerife in June. Credit: Supplied

Slater, 19, from Oswaldtwistle near Blackburn, Lancashire, has been missing since June 17.

He disappeared the morning after attending a rave with friends on the Spanish island of Tenerife.

Instead of returning to his accommodation, Slater decided to stay out with two British men he had met at the resort of Playa de las Américas.

Slater reportedly took a car journey with the men to their Airbnb, located 19 miles away from the beach club in the village of Masca.

The farmhouse, named Casa Abuela Tina, was where Slater was last seen.

jayslater2(1).jpegHe was reported missing by his friend Lucy Mae Law less than an hour after they spoke on the phone. Credit: Facebook

One of the men who stayed with Slater at the Airbnb, Ayub Qassim, spoke to MailOnline, saying: “He came to my Airbnb alive and he left my Airbnb alive.”

Qassim, 31, is believed to have invited the 19-year-old back to the holiday apartment after attending a rave in southern Tenerife before Slater disappeared the next day.

Qassim, who booked the Airbnb under the name Ayub Abdul, has already been interviewed by Spanish police along with another man.

The pair remained in Tenerife for a day after Slater disappeared to cooperate with the investigation. Authorities have previously stated the two men are “irrelevant” to the case.

jayslater (2).jpegCredit: Instagram

Qassim explained: "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, now back home in Barking, east London, denied having any argument with Slater.

In the meantime, former British police detective Mark Williams-Thomas raised questions about why Slater didn’t return to the Airbnb to charge his phone or get water.

He mentioned that Slater had "posted a Snapchat saying that he'd taken a £12,000 Rolex from a person," which allegedly related to an incident at the rave.

"Friends of Jay said he would not make this up and the watch was subject of later conversation between the friends," Williams-Thomas said in a video update shared to X, per The Sun.


Williams-Thomas says, that after talking to Slater's friends, they say he would not return to the Airbnb - despite them telling him to do so.

"We have received information that would suggest that Jay left the rental property feeling scared and he would not return to the rental, even though that would have been the most sensible course of action, and also where he could have charged his phone, got some water and made contact with friends," Williams-Thomas says

Williams-Thomas adds: "We have, however, ruled out hostage or kidnapping situation because no credible ransom demand has been made.

"We've no evidence at this stage to say there was a third party criminal involvement in Jay's disappearance."

Featured image credit: Instagram