Yahoo News British climber who flew to Tenerife to help find missing Jay Slater accuses Spanish police of 'PR stunt'
A British climber and TikTok creator has hit out at Spanish police, calling the final 'massive search' to find Jay Slater a 'PR stunt'.
Paul Arnott, 29, has stayed out in Tenerife and continued on his search for the missing 19-year-old from Lancashire, despite the Civil Guard calling off their search on the ground yesterday (June 30). Today, the climber and social media personality is back out on the mountainside near the rural town of Masca, where Jay was last seen and his phone was last tracked, searching where he thinks Jay Slater could be.
Saturday, June 29, saw the Civil Guard make one final push to find Jay, putting out a call to arms and encouraging all emergency services to return to that main search site - including any volunteers experienced in that terrain who wanted to join what was promised to be a 'massive search' by police. But the Civil Guard's last efforts on the ground at that location were slammed by Mr Arnott as only a handful of volunteers joined around 30 emergency service members and professional rescuers.
Climber and renowned TikTok creator Paul Arnott, from Bedfordshire, said he 'came straight out' after seeing Jay's family issue desperate appeals for assistance after he vanished.
Paul cancelled a charity fundraiser to spend hundreds of pounds on flying to the island and join in the search and rescue efforts on June 22. On Saturday, he recorded a blistering TikTok video, calling the search a ‘massive PR thing’ – before efforts were cancelled just a day later.
He broke his silence after days of searching, telling his TikTok following on his account ‘downtherapids’: "So, guys, I've literally been waiting for absolutely ages now. This is a massive PR thing, I'm telling you now.
"I'm gonna ask him in a second to take my name off the list. I'm just gonna go down there and do my thing. I'm gonna do that now, I think. Because there's people everywhere. Literally people everywhere and nobody's doing anything.”
He then asked to be taken off the list of volunteers by the Spanish police, choosing instead to take action and carry out his own searches: "[Speaking to Spanish police] Hey, hey, guys, for the list, this thing, just cross out take my name off. Yeah, because I'm going here now. It's too busy. I wanna go search.
"I'm gonna search over here cause it's ridiculous. So, yeah, guys, I can't deal with this. This is absolutely mad. I've been up here for ages.
"Yeah, there's people everywhere. I'm just putting it how it is. Everyone is still in their cars. It's all a big thing. It's all chat, chat, chat, chat, chat. I'm putting it out there now.
"I'm sick of it. I'm so stressed out. I tell you what, I'm coming down here, I'm gonna go get some food cause my morning's already been wasted.
"And then I'm gonna crack on a search for Jay in the area where I think he is. I can't deal with this, guys. I've been so quiet about this now. I've been so quiet about this. Not doing it anymore, people. I'm sick of this c**p."
The Civil Guard has been approached for comment on Mr Arnott’s opinion. The videos where he speaks about his frustrations collectively have been viewed more than one million on TikTok.
