Mystery man Jay Slater visited at Tenerife Airbnb issues 12-word statement

A man who was present at the Airbnb where Jay Slater stayed the night before his mysterious disappearance has broken his silence about his encounter with the missing British teenager. Jay, a 19 year old from Lancashire, vanished without a trace after leaving an Airbnb in the village of Masca, Tenerife, where he had spent the night with two men following a night out at a local nightclub.

Despite extensive search efforts in the mountainous northwest region of the Spanish island, there has been no sign of Jay for over two weeks, and the police called off their search last Sunday. On the day he went missing, Jay had spoken to his friend Lucy Law on his mobile, telling her that he planned to walk back to the south of the island - a journey estimated to take around 11 hours - before his phone battery died.

One of the men Jay stayed with at the Airbnb, Ayub Qassim, has now come forward to tell MailOnline: "He came to my Airbnb alive and he left my Airbnb alive."

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It is believed that Qassim invited Jay back to the holiday apartment after they attended a rave in the south of Tenerife. The 31-year-old, who booked the Airbnb under the name Ayub Abdul, has already given his statement to the Spanish police along with another man.

The pair reportedly remained in Tenerife for an additional day after Jay's disappearance to assist the police, who have previously stated that they are "irrelevant" to the investigation, reports the Mirror.

Mr Qassim stated: "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."

Back at his home in Barking, east London, Mr Qassim denied having an argument with Jay. In the meantime, former British police detective, Mark Williams-Thomas, questioned why Jay didn't return to the Airbnb to charge his phone or get some water. He also mentioned that the teen had " posted a Snapchat saying that he'd taken a £12,000 Rolex from a person", believed to be linked to an incident at the rave.

He went on to say: "We've 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."

In the video, he noted: "We've been unable to validate this in terms of a reported theft" but added: "However, friends of Jay said he would not make this up and the watch was subject of later conversation between the friends."

Mr Williams-Thomas, known for investigating numerous high-profile missing persons cases, detailed Jay's actions on the day he vanished. He stated: "The evidence is that Jay walked off on the rental, walked for about 30 minutes, and then sent his location at 8.49am and 8.50am. And we know that he was at that stage off the road on a track with loose stones."