The inquest into tragic teen Jay Slater’s death in Tenerife has heard details about how volatile he was in the hours before he vanished, if he was carrying knives and his fear over being poisoned
Apprentice bricklayer Jay Slater’s disappearance in Tenerife last year sparked a huge search for the teenager and hit national headlines. The 19 year old from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, had travelled to the Spanish island to attend the NRG music festival but vanished after separating from his friends and travelling to an apartment with two men they had met while on holiday.
His body was finally found almost a month later near the remote village of Masca and an inquest today concluded that he died an accidental death after falling in a rocky ravine and suffering a brain trauma and skull fracture. The inquest, which began in May but was adjourned to trace key witnesses, also heard details about his behaviour in the final hours of his life, including the erratic phonecalls he made to friends and his wild social media posts. Here we take a look at Jay’s last movements and messages, as heard at the inquest.
READ MORE: Everything we know about Jay Slater’s death from drugs ‘cocktail’ to stolen Rolex answer
Friend was “fuming”
Jay’s friend Lucy Law, who had known the teen for around six or seven years, travelled to the island with him, Brandon Hodgson and Bradley Hargreaves. On the first day of the second hearing at Preston Coroner’s Court she gave evidence via video link “because of the condition that she is in”. She revealed what happened on Sunday, June 16 – their last night out together before he went missing the following morning. She said she and Brandon watched the England football match at a bar called Veronica’s and were joined by Jay and Bradley for only around 20 minutes before they then left.
The group met up again at around midnight when they headed back out to the festival. When asked how drunk Jay was, Lucy told the court: “He was visibly intoxicated but I wouldn’t say he was in a state or anything, he wasn’t mangled.”
Jay went off to the toilet but didn’t come back, she said, so they all split up to try and find him but their phones were low on battery and he wasn’t answering his. “We left to see if we could find him outside. We had a look on The Strip. At this point I thought he’s probably made mates with someone or has found a girl and ventured off,” she told the inquest. She also said it wasn’t unusual for him to do this as he was a “social butterfly”.
Jay then messaged to say he was in a club called Oasis but they couldn’t find him there. He messaged again to say he was in another called Sugar Reef, but again they couldn’t find him there. Lucy left Jay a voicemail which said: “Where are you and what are you doing? I am coming down to get you. If you’re not there this time I will be f****** fuming.”
When she eventually found him he reportedly said he didn’t want to go home. “I said we’d all been worried about him but he just found the situation funny. Me and Brandon want you to go home and he said ‘there’s no way I’m going home’.
“I asked him to wait there and went back up to get Brandon and Brad. Me and Brandon got in a taxi, Brad walked down to meet Jay. I went home from there so I don’t know what happened after that.”
“On a mission”
Lucy also told the inquest that in one message she received from Jay that night he said that he was “on a mission”. After being introduced to convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim and Steven ‘Rocky’ Roccas by Brandon a few days before, Jay reportedly asked if he could stay at their rented Airbnb which was about 40 minutes from the festival because everyone else had gone home.
At the first hearing in May, neither man could be traced but Ayub yesterday gave evidence at the inquest from a foreign country. He described Jay as: “On a buzz. Chilled, happy. Mingling innit.” After Jay asked to go back to their apartment, he told the hearing: “I did say, ‘Bro, oh mate, it’s so far away from the strip. There’s nothing happening there other than scenery’. I said I would drop him off in the morning. He rolled with us.”
Ayub claims that back at the holiday rental, Jay asked for a phone charger so he told him to get Rocky’s from his room. He then started charging his phone in the kitchen and Ayub said he got him a blanket and a towel for the morning. Of their final conversation, he said: “He asked for a fag and I left my deck downstairs. I said goodnight and went upstairs.”
Brad also attended the inquest and told the court that Jay had video called him while he was inside the Airbnb. “He showed me the bed they had made for him,” he said.
The ‘stolen Rolex’ mystery
While on the drive to the Airbnb, Jay posted a message to friends, including Brad, on social media, saying: “Just took a 12k Rolly (Rolex) off some c*** with this Maili (Somalian) kid. Off to get 10 quid (thousand) for it. Off my undies ha, ha, ha.”
Brad said Jay had told him in a Snapchat message that he was going up to Ayub and Rocky’s house “to sell a watch”. Brad was asked about the watch and why he didn’t ask Jay more about it. “Because I was under the influence of drugs,” he said. Adding: “I didn’t think anything of it because there are a lot of people selling fake stuff on the strip. Loads of watches,” he said.
Brandon couldn’t be located in order to give evidence to the inquest and Brad claimed that he knew a lot more about it “than just the Snapchat”.
Coroner Dr Adeley asked Ayub if he was involved in taking a watch. He replied: “No. And neither was he [Jay}”. The coroner then asked the witness about messages Jay had sent about a watch possibly being stolen. Ayub said while still on the strip before leaving for their apartment he saw what he described as a Romanian “lucky-lucky” man take a watch from another person before trying to sell it to him and Jay. He added: “Jay did not steal no watch. I can say one hundred per cent.”
Asked to explain the social media post by Jay, the witness said: “He could be boasting to his friends. He’s on a buzz, so maybe it could be that. Sometimes people do exaggerate.” The coroner continued: “But so far as you are concerned, none of that is true?” Ayub replied: “No. One hundred per cent. I didn’t see a watch. At this point he’s just firing off messages.”
Today the coroner referred to the various Snapchat messages in which Jay claimed to have stolen a watch. He pointed out that the brand of the watch was different in each message and Ayub’s evidence that “people often ‘boosted’ themselves up in messages”. “I consider that the watch is irrelevant to subsequent events,” he said.
Was Jay carrying knives?
At the inquest in May one of Jay’s friends said the teen sent him a photo of himself with “knives down his trousers” shortly before his death.
Witness Josh Forshaw met Jay and his pals as they queued to board the plane from Manchester to Tenerife. Josh later shared contact details with Jay and met the group at the music festival. Josh said that Jay “seemed dead happy” and that he was “off his head on drugs”.
Josh told proceedings Jay had sent him a photo of himself with “knives down his trousers”. He said the image had been captioned: “In case it kicks off”. The witness added he did not inform Spanish police about the picture but after he returned home to the UK, he informed Lancashire Police about it.
On Thursday Brad was asked about speculation that Jay had hidden two knives down his shorts. He said he knew nothing about it. The coroner asked: “You have known Jay a long time, would him arming himself with two kitchen knives down his trousers be unusual?”
Brad replied “yes” it would be unusual. Brad also said that nothing made him believe that Jay was distressed, feeling scared, worried or frightened.
Jay’s last calls and fears over ‘poisoning’
Previously, Detective Williams-Thomas said in a podcast: “Jay was still buzzing at 6am from the alcohol and drugs but his friends wanted to go home, so when Qassim told Jay that he could go back to theirs and continue partying he jumped at the chance.” He added that at 2.35am, Jay sent a cryptic text to a friend, saying: “They’ve got a marker on me.”
His friend replied to the text at 3am, saying: “You need to go home lad you’re off your barnet.” Jay then replied by writing: “You think I’m going home you must be disabled.” At this stage, the investigator said, Jay “was very heavily under the influence of drink and drugs.”
According to Mr Williams-Thomas, it is possible that “some paranoia” was present “because his friends were saying he was not making much sense and being argumentative which was very unlike Jay.”
Phone location data suggested Jay left Ayub and Rocky’s apartment at around 7.45am on June 17. Statements from local Spanish witnesses said they were approached and asked by him about buses or taxis to take him home.
Jay called Brad on Snapchat as he was “walking down a road” and told his friend: “I’m gonna come back.” Brad told the inquest: “At that point I might have been feeling a bit worried. He said ‘I’m gonna come back down’ and he was asking if we had any drinks left at the apartment.” Brad told Jay to “put maps on” while on the Snapchat call to see how far away from the Paloma Beach apartment he was.
He told the court: “He said ‘14 hours walk or an hour’s drive’. I said ‘wow, why are you so far away, get a taxi back’. He then said ‘I’ll ring you back’ and that was the last time I spoke to Jay.”
The inquest also heard a statement Brandon gave to Spanish police via a video call following Jay’s disappearance. Brandon told police that Jay called him when he was trying to walk home after leaving the Airbnb. The call was made at around 8.30am and it was a video call.
Jay told Brandon he was in the middle of nowhere and showed him where he was. He said he wasn’t on a road and couldn’t see anywhere nearby. However he said Jay “didn’t seem frightened” despite being on his own and was “laughing and joking”. Brandon added that he thought Jay was “out of his mind”.
Lucy was the last person to speak to Jay Slater. Brandon had called Lucy that morning and told her that Jay was up in the mountains, which she thought was a joke at first.
She realised it was serious and called Jay several times at around 8.50am in which she asked him if he knew where he was. Jay said that his mouth was dry and he needed a drink and was frightened. His phone was on 2% at this point.
He also made a frantic call to Lucy saying: “I’m in the middle of nowhere… there is literally nothing but mountains.” Lucy told the hearing she “started panicking” after receiving the call. She said Jay asked her if cactuses were poisonous, and she replied: “A cactus is the least of your problems, go back to where you have just come from.” During the call Jay told her: “I can’t go back there”, but she said she didn’t feel anything bad had happened, saying: “I also feel like, if something had gone on in terms of conflict, I feel like he probably would have said.”
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 Jay’s body.
Home Office pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd said his post-mortem examination gave the 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”. 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.