Jay Slater's friend breaks silence over knives 'stuffed into pants'
A friend of tragic teen Jay Slater has revealed where he got the two knives he armed himself with before his dead body was discovered at bottom of Tenerife ravine.
The 19-year-old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished on his first ever trip abroad in June last year to attend a music festival on the Spanish Island with pals. After an extensive month-long search involving helicopter crews, search dogs and drones, Jay's remains were discovered in steep, rocky terrain near the remote village of Masca. Now a year on, his close friend Lucy Law, who joined him on the holiday, has made a bombshell claim that the teenager stuffed two knives into his pants for "protection" on the night he vanished - and revealed where he got them from.
In a podcast released by celebrity investigator Mark Williams-Thomas, Lucy shared a first-hand account of what happened in the lead up to Jay vanishing, along with Ayub Qassim, the convicted drug dealer who Jay accompanied back to an AirBnB in Masca after attending the NRG music festival. Lucy claims police in Tenerife "weren't taking me seriously" when she first reported the teenager missing.
The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week
She said Jay was "going on a mission" the night before his disappearance - and then sent a photo to a friend the following day which showed him carrying knives he found at his Airbnb in Masca. "On the night before, when I was still awake, before we went home, he messaged me saying 'I'm going on a mission', then I've gone home, tried to find him…," she told Mark Williams-Thomas.
'Woke up to the call from Brandon in the morning 'oh my God he's in the mountains, trying to walk…. He's said 'can't go back there, can't go back there' (referring to the Airbnb rental where he had stayed)." Lucy then spoke to Jay and told him: "Go back to where you came from, do you know anything about where you are?"
She then talked to Josh, who was a friend of Jay and staying in Tenerife, who had received the photo of the teenager carrying the knives. Lucy said that Jay had met Josh on the plane to the holiday island.
"He sent the video to Josh," said Lucy, of the footage showing Jay with the knives. "Took the kitchen knives from the Airbnb and put them down his pants, lifted his top up and shown it to him 'Just in case anything kicks off'. I'm like…" She added: "It could have just been a coincidence but with him also saying about going on a mission..."
It came after Jay bragged about snatching a £12,000 AP watch while "off his undies". In a Snapchat post, he boasted: "Just took a 12k rolly off some c*** wi this Mali kid off to get 10quid for it now haha off my undies." Another Snapchat, sent at a similar time, read: "Yes cuz ended up getting thrown out of there me with 2 maili kids just took an AP off some c*** on way to sell it for 10 quid."
At 7am, Jay sent a 13-second video of himself smoking a cigarette outside an Airbnb, taking in the mountain view. Minutes later, he filmed a final, seven-second clip showing the rugged landscape. Police later geolocated the footage to Masca - the same area where his body was eventually found.
The teenager had been driven to the Airbnb by Britons Ayub Qassim and Steven Roccas. An inquest into Jay's death was last month adjourned after his mum Debbie pleaded for more witnesses to come forward. She said: "We want these people to be sat in front of us, because our son went on holiday and didn't come back, so there's questions we need to ask."
A number of witnesses were asked to give evidence at the hearing at Preston Coroner's Court but were either not traced or were unable to attend despite extensive efforts, the court was told. The group included Ayub Qassim and Lucy Law, whose stepfather Andy Davis said she had no idea that the inquest was taking place.
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