Jay Slater's drug dealer pal finally reveals bombshell truth about 'stolen' £12,000 Rolex
A convicted drug dealer who offered Jay Slate r a place to stay the night before he vanished has finally turned up to give evidence at the tragic teen's inquest.
Ayub Qassim extended an invitation for Jay to return to his rented Airbnb in the Tenerife mountain village of Masca on the evening before he disappeared. The 31-year-old, who also goes by "Johnny Vegas" is giving evidence via video link at today's hearing, having failed to turn up at the start of the inquest in May.
And now Qassim has shared a major update in the mystery surrounding the allegedly stolen Rolex watch that Jay bragged about to his friend, as he told the coroner: "Jay did not steal no watch".
The pal said that the night before Jay disappeared, the group they were both with went to get food around 6am following a night of partying.
Jay asked Quassim if he could stay with him at his place, because everyone else had left. His flat, in Masca, was around a 40-minute drive from the strip, something his friends jokingly complained about, the inquest heard.
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Qassim says he agreed to take Jay and offered to drop him off in the morning. But before they left, Qassim says he saw a Romanian man on the strip "take a watch off some other guy, some randomer" before offering it to Qassim and Slater, which he wasn't interested in.
"Whether he gave it to Jay or not, I don't know, but it was a fake watch," Quassim told the court. "One thing I can say is: Jay did not steal no watch."
After Quassim's evidence, the court was shown a Snapchat picture sent by Jay. It's understood to have been taken on June 17 at around 5.50am.
It showed a blurry picture of the teen in a car, wearing sunglasses. The caption of the picture says: "Yes cuz ended up getting thrown out of there me with 2 maili kids just took an AP [expensive watch] off some c*** on way to sell it for 10 quid."
In an earlier message, Jay had claimed the 'watch' had been a Rolex. AP refers to Audemars Piguet, an expensive watch designer.
At the inquest, coroner Dr James Adeley asked Quassim "Do you have any explanation as to why this was posted?" and he said: "No. He could be boasting to his friends, you can tell he's on the buzz. It could be that. When we were all younger, we might over-exaggerate."
At an earlier hearing in May, Jay's friend and witness Josh Forshaw gave evidence on the messages, and claimed Jay was planning to sell the strap for "10 quid" - a slang term for £10,000. The whereabouts of the Rolex is still unknown, as it was never found.
Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, went missing In Tenerife last summer and after a search that lasted several weeks, his body was discovered in a remote ravine.
The 19-year-old apprentice bricklayer had been partying at NRG music festival with friends at the Papagayo nightclub in the resort of Playa de las Americas and is believed to have ended up at a holiday rental apartment in the early hours of June 17.
Evidence suggests he left the flat hours later, attempted to walk back to his own apartment and tragically fell into a ravine.
A huge search operation was launched before his body was found in a steep and inaccessible area by a mountain rescue team from the Spanish Civil Guard near the village of Masca on July 15.
But a number of witnesses who were with him on the night he disappeared or at the rental apartment did not attend the inquest when it started at Preston Coroner's Court in May. The court heard they could not be traced or were unavailable, despite extensive efforts to get them to come as witnesses.
Debbie Duncan, Mr Slater's mother, tearfully asked the coroner to adjourn as the family still had questions for the last people to see him alive. Dr James Adeley, senior coroner for Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen, agreed to adjourn to Thursday July 24 to make a final attempt to trace the witnesses.
Jay's friend Lucy Law, who is giving evidence at today's inquest via video link, was the first to sound the alarm when Jay vanished. The pair were mates prior to the getaway and both hail from Lancashire.
In the immediate aftermath of his disappearance, she spearheaded initial search operations and provided support to the teenager's relatives upon their arrival. She was absent from the initial inquest into his death, with her family explaining she was overseas and unaware the hearing was scheduled.
Meanwhile, another pal, Bradley Hargreaves, has given evidence at today's hearing in person after missing the inquest when it started. He also made the journey from Lancashire to Tenerife with Jay. He possessed knowledge of Jay's final whereabouts after receiving the location from the lad himself.
Steven 'Rocky' Roccas, who was staying with Mr Qassim at the Masca Airbnb, remains shrouded in mystery as little is known about him. Met Police officers attempted to deliver a witness summons to his London address, only to discover he had moved on.
The hearing in May heard from witnesses including toxicology expert Dr Stephanie Martin. The court heard that analysis showed traces of drugs – including cocaine, ketamine and ecstasy – and alcohol in Mr Slater's body.
Home Office pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd said his post-mortem examination gave cause of death as head injuries and Mr Slater's body showed no evidence of restraint or assault, with the pattern of injuries consistent with a fall from height.
Detective Chief Inspector Rachel Higson, from Lancashire Constabulary, said police had analysed Mr Slater's phone data. On the night out he had received phone messages from friends telling him to go home as he was "off his head".
Phone location data suggested he travelled to the holiday flat then left the property at around 7.45am the next day. Statements from local Spanish witnesses said they were approached and asked by Mr Slater about buses or taxis to take him home.
More messages from friends warned him about the "boiling" heat of the day but activity data on his phone stopped at 8.51am, suggesting the battery had died.
Marieke Krans from Dutch rescue charity Signi Zoekhonden helped in the search. She said the area where the body was found was about a three and a half-hour walk from the holiday apartment and was "really steep, really dangerous", and it was "easy" to lose your footing.
The coroner told the hearing that one explanation for Mr Slater's death could be "he has walked into the middle of nowhere and fallen off a cliff".
The inquest is scheduled to conclude on Friday.
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