Who is the ‘sleeping man’? Mystery after Jay Slater ‘told to use snoozing stranger’s charger’ yet left with ‘1% battery’
MISSING Jay Slater had the chance to charge his phone before he went missing three weeks ago and didn’t, an investigator has revealed.
Mark Williams-Thomas – who worked on the Madeleine McCann case – told how the Brit teen was offered a charger in the hours before he vanished.
Jay headed back to an Airbnb rented by convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, on June 17, with him and a second unnamed man.
Former detective Mark, who is on the ground in Tenerife, yesterday revealed what happened there in the hours before Jay vanished.
He described Qassim’s version of events which saw the three of them leave a rave at Papagayo nightclub and drive back to the holiday let together.
After arriving at the accommodation, Jay apparently asked Qassim for a phone charger.
Mark revealed in a video update on Sunday: “Jay asked for a cigarette and Ayub said, I’ve got some camel cigarettes and put one on the side.
“Jay then asked for a phone charger. He [Ayub] said, go into my friend’s room. He’s asleep.
“Take his charger and you can put your phone on charge.”
But the former Met cop said Ayub told him there was no charging point for Jay to use in the living room, supposedly where he crashed that night on the sofa.
It is not clear whether Jay did use the charger in the end – but he told Lucy in a panicked phone call just hours later that it only had one percent battery left.
Mark also revealed how Jay turned down the offer of a lift from Qassim that morning – saying he was hungry and wanted to get home.
He explained: “Ayub says, he says to him, mate, just chill out. I’ll drop you off in town when I wake up properly.
“He [Jay] went, no, no, no, no. I’m hungry. I need to get a scran. And the woman told me I can get a bus every 10 minutes to Los Cristianos.”
In a bombshell development he also revealed that Qassim is the same man so far known only as ‘Johnny Vegas’.
Later, Mark explained, “He [Ayub] then says he gets a call from a friend of Jay’s who says that he’s in a ditch somewhere and he’s been cut by a cactus.”
It was around this time that the alarm was raised for Jay, who had been spotted heading towards the mountainous Rural de Teno park.
His phone last pinged in the rugged parkland, where cops focused their two week-search.
The mammoth op, made up of countless emergency responders and volunteers, was axed after two weeks.
Today marks three weeks since the apprentice bricklayer vanished – and many unanswered questions about his disappearance remain.
Qassim, who The Sun revealed was jailed for nine years in 2015, previously insisted: “Jay came to the house alive, and he left the house alive.”
The convicted criminal has hit out at speculation over his involvement in the mystery case and insists he has “nothing to hide”.
THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF JAY SLATER
By Ellie Doughty, Foreign News Reporter
Monday July 8 marks three weeks since Jay Slater, a 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished in Tenerife.
The apprentice bricklayer, who flew out to the popular holiday island for a rave festival with friends Lucy Law and Brad Page, has made headlines around the country.
On Sunday June 16 the three of them headed off to one of the events at Papagayo nightclub.
In the early hours of Monday 17 – Lucy and Brad were ready to head back to their hotel, but Jay wanted to keep partying.
It was then that he left the south of the island and headed to an Airbnb in the northwest with two British men.
The Sun revealed the identity of one of them – convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, who spent nine years behind bars in the UK.
For days it was thought that the second mystery man went by the name ‘Johnny Vegas’.
On Sunday former detective Mark Williams-Thomas, who is out in Tenerife investigating, said Qassim told him he is in fact the man behind the nickname ‘Johnny Vegas’.
We don’t yet know the identity of the second man – who remains a key part of the puzzle in Jay’s mysterious disappearance.
Qassim claims he drove Jay and the friend back to their accommodation and said they all went to sleep.
In the morning he offered to drive the teen back to the Los Cristianos resort after a nap, but Jay, hungry and tired, said he wanted to leave immediately.
Lucy, the last person to speak to Jay, claims she had a panicked call from him soon after he left the holiday let, telling her he was lost and thirsty, his phone was about to die and that he’d been cut by a cactus.
Jay had been seen by the owner of the Airbnb that morning wandering around near the Rural de Teno park – a mountainous region close-by.
He is believed to have been attempting the 11-hour trek back to his hotel, despite the alleged offer of a lift and more buses scheduled for the day.
It was there that his phone last pinged – and he hasn’t been seen or heard from since.
Mark Williams-Thomas has claimed he left the Airbnb quickly, and was “scared”.
Bizarrely, Qassim says he was woken up that morning by a phone call from an unnamed friend of Jay, saying he was “in a ditch” somewhere and had been “cut by a cactus”.
Jay’s friend Lucy claimed to have “tracked down” the two men in the Airbnb after he vanished – quizzing them on the morning of Jay’s disappearance.
Some reports have suggested Lucy knew the two men, although it is not clear how.
She has dubbed his disappearance “weird and suspicious”.
Both men were questioned by Spanish cops on June 17 but quickly deemed “irrelevant” to the investigation and cleared to fly back to the UK.
Police spent almost two weeks searching for Jay in the Tenerife mountains, scouring a 2,000ft ravine, before calling it off on Sunday June 30.
Jay’s family have repeatedly slammed the Spanish investigation into his bizarre disappearance.
His uncle, Glen Duncan, is convinced of “third party involvement”.
And the teen’s devastated dad, Warren Slater, says “everything stinks”
He told The Sun: “My starting position, I’ve said this from day one, ask the two men who’ve taken him – and then start from there.”
A number of unanswered questions remain, over why Jay would have travelled so far with two older men he didn’t know, why said men would have taken him in, and why he braved the Tenerife mountains with no phone battery, water or heat protection for a day-long walk.