An east London man who rented the Airbnb where missing Jay Slater stayed has broken his silence, saying: “Jay came to the house alive and he left the house alive.”
Mr Slater, 19, went missing shortly after leaving the holiday let in Tenerife on June 17 after being invited back to the property by Ayub Qassim after a rave.
Mr Qassim, 31, told the MailOnline: “I let the geezer stay at mine because he had nowhere else to go. His friends had all left him. I know Jay through friends.
“I’m not going to bring someone back to mine if I don’t know them. I’m doing the geezer a favour and now my face is all over the news. It’s a bit mental. I haven’t even done anything.”
Mr Slater, an apprentice bricklayer from Lancashire, was last seen by a local resident in Masca just after 8am walking out of the village where the AirBnB had been.
Mr Qassim, whose family is from Barking, east London, has been ruled out of involvement in Jay’s disappearance by Spain’s Civil Guard.
Investigators have allowed him and another unnamed friend with whom he was travelling to return home to the UK.
Police last week called off the search for the teen after helicopters, drones and search dogs were deployed to find him.
Mr Slater had attended the NRG music festival with two friends before his disappearance, and his last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island - which was about an 11-hour walk from his accommodation
His mother Debbie Duncan on Wednesday thanked well-wishers for their support, including by raising money for volunteers to search for Jay.
In a statement on a GoFundMe appeal that has raised nearly £50,000, Ms Duncan thanked the "vast" generosity of donors, saying her family are "grateful for all of your support and kindness during this unimaginable time".
Ms Duncan wrote that part of the funds will be used to support volunteers hunting for Mr Slater in the mountains near to where his last phone call was traced.
