A BRITISH man who took Jay Slater back to his Airbnb claims he only did so because “his friend had all left him”.
Ayub Qassim, 31, rented the £40-a-night holiday let in northwest Tenerife under a different surname.
Jay, 19, went back to the remote cottage – called Case Abuela Tina – at around 5am on June 17, just hours before he vanished.
The apprentice bricklayer, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, had been at a rave all night in Playa de las Americas.
He then travelled the hour-long car journey to the Airbnb in Masca with two British men he is understood to have met while on holiday.
Qassim, who was jailed nine years ago for masterminding an operation to flood Wales with Class A drugs, said: “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.”
Qassim, who booked the Airbnb under the surname Abdul, and his unnamed friend spoke to Spanish police after Jay vanished before flying back to the UK the following day.
They have since been deemed “not relevant” to the case by detectives.
Jay’s dad Warren, however, has questioned why his teenage son ended up going to a holiday let with “two grown men”.
Warren Slater, 58, believes the investigation into his son’s whereabouts should focus on the Airbnb.
He told The Sun: “My only question is, and this is where you start the investigation from, why did two grown men take a young boy to a valley to a bed and breakfast? I can’t understand that.
“Why? Why? You need to ask them why and then start from there.”
Warren’s questions come after a TV investigator helping the family claimed Jay left the Airbnb feeling “scared”.
Former detective Mark Williams-Thomas claims the lad did not want to return to the holiday let despite needing water and having little phone battery.
He told friends he “couldn’t do that” and that he was already 30 minutes walk away.
Mark also claimed Jay admitted swiping the a pricey Rolex in a Snapchat to pals while in a car on his way to the Airbnb
Qassim said Jay “left the Airbnb alive” and stressed that he “hadn’t even done anything”.
He told the Mail: “The only comment I have to make is that Jay came to the house alive, and he left the house alive.
“If I’d fallen out with him would he even come to mine?
“There were no problems. You’ve seen the last images of him with his red blanket around him.
“I don’t know if he had beef elsewhere because I don’t know him that well, I only know him through friends.”
Qassim confirmed he had spoken to the Spanish authorities in Tenerife but says he was told by foreign cops not speak to anyone else.
Asked how well he knew Jay and what he thought of the conspiracy theories surrounding his disappearance, Qassim said: “Everyone knows each other. I’m not going to slander anyone.
“He’s a cool guy, Jay. He ain’t got a problem with me, I haven’t got a problem with him or his mates.”
Qassim added that he and Jay’s pals all just talk to each other and that “everything was sweet.”
Jay is known to have left the property at around 7.30am to catch a bus back towards his holiday apartment.
A witness said he asked her when the next bus was.
When she told him the next one wasn’t until 10am, he is believed to have attempted to walk the 11 hours it would have taken him to get back to his holiday let.
Qassim and the other unnamed man stayed an extra day after Jay vanished and spoke to Spanish cops.
They gave officers their details and fully cooperated with the investigation.
Jay was on his first ever holiday without his family when he vanished as he walked back to his accommodation last Monday morning.
The apprentice bricklayer has not been seen or heard from since calling his friend at 8.50am to tell her he was lost, in need of water and that his phone was low on battery.
Spanish police announced over the weekend that they would be ending their search after less than two weeks.
But Jay’s friends and family vowed to continue scouring the island’s Rural de Teno park, in the hope of finding him.
Dad Warren, who was yesterday scouring a narrow ravine near to the village of Masca where Jay was last seen, said the police are not telling the family much about their investigation.
He added that he has become “frustrated” and “angry” that more hasn’t been done to find his son.
Frustrated Warren said: “I’ve gone past the sadness bit and I’m angry, if that makes any sense. I’m angry that nothing’s happened.”
The lack of info has prompted Warren to become a detective himself.
“The police here are doing their own investigations. They’re not really telling us anything, they’re not telling you lot anything, we’re in the dark,” he said.
“All I’m doing is a Colombo bit myself. I mean he might be on here, you never know, but as a dad I don’t want him to be.”
