Jay Slater refused a lift from a ‘new pal’ minutes before he went missing in Tenerife because he was in too much of a rush to get home, it is claimed.
The apprentice bricklayer had been in the company of convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim in the early hours of June 17 – the day he disappeared on the Spanish island – having met him at a club the night before.
Qassim, 31, who was one of the last people to see Jay before he vanished, told earlier this week had invited the Lancashire teenager back to his £40-a-night AirBnB rental in Masca.
Now TV sleuth Mark Williams-Thomas says he has interviewed Qassim, who posted a video of himself on Instagram sitting on the same mosaic style doorstep where Jay sent his final Snapchat image on June 17, and gathered new information.
The investigator told MailOnine that Qassim claimed to have had offered Jay a lift back to his hotel in the morning, but was turned down as the missing teenager was hungry and unwilling to wait.
Mr Williams-Thomas, who helped expose Jimmy Savile’s vile sex crimes after the TV presenter’s death, revealed that Qassim said that Jay had been eager to leave the AirBnB on waking up the next morning and a neighbour had told him about a bus that could take him back.
He said: ‘Qassim said to him ‘Chill, mate, I’ll drop you off later, when I wake up’ but he said Jay said ‘nah, I need some scran, I’m hungry’
‘Jay said he had been told by the woman the bus to Los Cristianos was every ten minutes and Qassim said there was no bus and added ‘Do what you like’ before going to sleep.’
Mr Williams-Thomas added: ‘Qassim says the next thing he remembers is getting a call from one of Jay’s friends to say he is lying in a ditch somewhere and that he’s been “bitten by a cactus”.’
Qassim had been staying at the AirBnB with another British man, who has refused to identify, and both men have been ruled out by Spanish police as being involved in Jay’s disappearance.
Jay from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, has not been seen or heard of since he vanished on June 17 and police spent 13 days combing the Masca gorge, an hour from Playa de las Americas, before calling the search off.
Last week tracked Qassim down to his east London home after we established he had booked the £40 a night Airbnb in Masca on the Spanish island of Tenerife.
Newly revealed video footage showed where Jay headed to following an after party at Papagayo nightclub on the infamous Veronicas Strip in the raucous Playa de las Americas resort popular with British holidaymakers.
On Sunday Mr Williams-Thomas has told he has also interviewed Qassim and coaxed out more details from him to flesh out the mystery which include him confirm the nickname Johnny Vegas is his.
The former Metropolitan Police officer, told : ‘In the last 24 hours I have spoken in detail with Ayub Qassim, who is also known as Jonny Vegas.
‘He told me he was on the (Veronicas) Strip in Playa de las Americas and said that Jay wanted to carry on partying and that he hadn’t anywhere to stay, so he (Qassim) invited him back to his rental.
‘In the car they played music all the way, they stopped once to get a can of fizzy drink, and there was three of them in the car, Jay in the back and Qassim’s friend in the front.
‘Once at the property, his friend opened the door, and went to the left and went straight to sleep.
‘Jay walked in, and Qassim walked in behind him, went upstairs, and got him a red blanket.’
Mr Williams-Thomas added: ‘Qassim said ‘Yo bro, the sofa’s for you there’ and he gave him a towel if he needed a shower.
‘Jay also asked for a cigarette and Qassim gave him a Camel cigarette and left it on the side.
‘Jay then asked for a charger and then went into Qassim’s friend room, while he was sleeping and got the charger.’
Mr Williams-Thomas said that Qassim told him he then went to sleep and woke up to the sound of the door buzzing.
He added: ‘Qassim opened the door and spoke to a woman and man and they told, him to move his car, which he did and he said he could see Jay chatting to a woman.
‘He said that after moving the car, he came back and saw Jay had his trainers on and he told Qassim that the woman had said he could get a bus ‘every ten minutes’.
‘Qassim said to him ‘Chill, mate, I’ll drop you off later, when I wake up’ but he said Jay said ‘nah, I need some scran, I’m hungry’
‘Jay said he had been told by the woman the bus to Los Cristianos was every ten minutes and Qassim said there was no bus and added ‘Do what you like’ before going to sleep.’
Mr Williams-Thomas added: ‘Qassim says the next thing he remembers is getting a call from one of Jay’s friends to say he is lying in a ditch somewhere and that he’s been “bitten by a cactus”.’
Qassim would not tell Mr Williams-Thomas the identity of the second man who was with him and refused to discuss an alleged theft of a Rolex which might have contributed to Jay’s disappearance.
Last week the TV detective, who has probed a string of missing persons cases, also said Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, had been ‘anxious and scared’ when he left the property.
Qassim – who has spoken to Spanish police – was jailed in 2015 for nine years for being the ring leader of a London-based gang dealing heroin and crack cocaine in Cardiff.
He is also closely connected to a legal cannabis café in Tenerife owned by his childhood pal drill rapper Potter Payper.
Pictures on Qassim’s Instagram show him allegedly at a police station in Tenerife and another pictures him with two unknown teenagers on the treacherous road leading to Masca dancing on stone bollards by the side of the road.
While another shows him at the steering wheel of a car driving at 125kph in what is thought to be a motorway tunnel leading from Playa de las Americas to Masca.
Intriguingly Qassim has now deleted all his posts from his Instagram account – quack.quack1 – which has the two ducks and a picture of the top of his head under a palm tree.
The bio reads: ‘To move a mountain, you’ve gotta star by moving the little stones 1st,’ which is saying attributed Chinese philosopher Confucius.’
Initially it was thought Johnny Vegas was the nickname of the second man who was at the AirBnB but this has been ruled out by Mr Williams-Thomas new interview.
However Qassim’s story is still far from clear as Jay’s apartment was just ten minutes from Papagayo’s nightclub where the after party was being held.
On Saturday Jay’s uncle Glen Duncan, 41, searched the area for several hours with Jay’s dad Warren, 58, and his brother Zak, 24.
After more than six hours under a blazing sun, he told waiting media: ‘There’s millions of apartments and hotels down there in Los Cristianos and Playa de las Americas.
‘The fact he [Qassim] has come out and said all his mates have left him and he had nowhere to go, he was ten minutes from his apartment in Los Cristianos.
‘[Jay’s] not stupid. If he didn’t have a room key he could have gone to reception for a replacement.’
Spanish police told that although the search was over ‘the investigation was continuing and there were many open avenues being looked into’.