‘Distressing’ video is not missing teenager Jay Slater, says former detective

A distressing video circulating online apparently showing a person being severely beaten is not of missing British teenager Jay Slater, a former detective has said.

Mark Williams-Thomas said the footage was first posted on Russian social media sites nine years ago when Mr Slater would have been just 10 years old.

Mr Williams, who worked on the Madeleine McCann case, said “lots of people” had been contacting him about the “distressing” clip.

The missing 19-year-old was last seen in Masca, a small mountain village in Tenerife, walking up a steep road on June 17.

The Guardia Civil scoured the nearby Rural de Teno national park for 13 days before calling the search off on Sunday.

Mr Williams-Thomas, who flew to Tenerife to help with the search, said that Jay’s family and close friends “read a lot of what is posted online” and some of it had been “unfair and unkind”.

He said: “The video was first posted on a social media site nine years ago and therefore cannot be Jay Slater.”

He added: “So much fake content has been created in the Jay Slater case – mocked up chat messages, pics.

“It’s a very different world we live in today with social media and online detectives.

“Overwhelming response from people has been very positive, people just wanting to help, even though most have no direct info, just what they have read, seen or think.

“Also a number of people making vile threats and ransom demands, all checked out and have no credibility.”

Mr Slater’s family have stayed in Tenerife to search for him. Police have told them that they can bring in their own search-and-rescue teams .

Mr Slater’s parents, Debbie Duncan and Warren Slater, remain on the island and plan to use money donated to a crowdfunding page to pay for specialist tracking teams after Spain’s Guardia civil police force ended its search effort.

Mr Slater’s family told Sky News they wanted to use some of the £50,000 donated to pay for the effort but were waiting for permission from the authorities.

A spokeswoman for the Guardia Civil in Tenerife told The Telegraph that search teams from other places were welcome to help.

“The right thing would be for these teams to notify us and collaborate on information,” the spokeswoman said.

Mr Slater’s parents have asked the local police to continue searching. The Guardia Civil say they are continuing their lines of investigation but are giving out no information on what these are.

Mr Slater, 58, and Ms Duncan, 55, visited a police station in Playa de las Americas for two hours on Tuesday to demand answers about the investigation.

Spanish police have so far dismissed any criminal element to Mr Slater’s disappearance, but officers in forensic gear have been seen searching the cottage in Masca where the teenager stayed before he vanished.

Mr Slater, who had travelled to Tenerife with two friends, left a music festival in a car with two British men, who are believed to be in their 30s or 40s from south-east England.

The force has insisted the two men last seen with Mr Slater “don’t have any relevance” to the case and has allowed them to return to the UK.

After setting off from their accommodation he rang a friend and said he was lost, thirsty, had one per cent charge left on his phone and had cut his leg on a cactus. His mobile ran out of power shortly after the call.

Ms Duncan said on Tuesday that “words cannot describe the pain and agony” her family was experiencing.

Speaking through the missing persons charity LBT Global, she said: “Jay is a normal guy who is in his third year of an apprenticeship, and he is a very popular young man with a large circle of friends.

“We are a very close family and are absolutely devastated about his disappearance. Words cannot describe the pain and agony we are experiencing.

“He is our beautiful boy with his whole life ahead of him and we just want to find him. We do not have any information on his whereabouts.”