Hunt for Jay Slater takes new flip after one other Briton is discovered

The hunt for missing teenager Jay Slater has taken a new turn after another Briton was dramatically rescued by Spanish police during their search on the island of Tenerife.

A ‘tired and disoriented’ Scottish hiker was stuck in a ravine in the Rural de Teno national park after getting into a ‘difficult’ area that is not ‘suitable for travel’.

When the 51-year-old failed to return to the start point of their walk after several hours, locals alerted mountain rescue teams who were already combing the rugged area for 19-year-old Jay. 

Police added: ‘Tired and disoriented, he was located by the agents and the rescue team who helped him get out of the ravine. 

‘We want to thank these neighbours for giving alert to this situation because due to the difficulty and lack of communication in the area, this hiker would not have managed to get out by his own means without the help received.’

Local police in Buenavista del Norte alongside the Civil Protection mountain rescue team located the hiker in the Asomada Canyon.

It comes as Spanish cops continue to search for British teenager Jay, whose phone last pinged at 8.50am on Monday June 17 in the same Rural de Teno park, near Masca.  

Jay, an apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, vanished on Tenerife last Monday after going back to an Airbnb with two British men he had met while partying on the last night of the three-day NRG music festival. 

The last confirmed sighting of Jay was in the village of Masca at around 8am by a woman who had told him the bus back to his accommodation was due at 10am when he asked. She saw him set off on foot for a journey and later drove past him ‘walking fast’. 

The teenager was last heard from at around 8.30am when he called his friend Lucy Mae Law to say he was walking back to his accommodation after missing the bus. He told her he was ‘lost in the mountains with one per cent battery and no water’.

The walk from where Jay’s phone last pinged in the national park to his accommodation would have taken about 11 hours on foot. 

He has not been seen or heard from since but hopes were raised yesterday by a new CCTV image of what the family believe could be Jay in Santiago de Teide last Monday at around 6pm – nearly ten hours on from his phone’s last live location.

The grainy CCTV is taken close to a church, San Fernando Rey, where Jay’s mother told MailOnline on Saturday that a man has come forward to say he saw someone matching her son’s description sitting on a bench with two men.

The sighting has not been confirmed by local police, who say ‘nothing has been ruled out and nothing has been ruled in’, as they continue to focus their efforts on a ravine near where he was last seen. 

A source close to the family said: ‘It looks like him and is certainly a man’s shape but we just don’t know. It was taken near the church where a witness says he saw him so we have to keep hoping.’

The church of San Fernando Rey is around 15 miles from the rave venue Jay was partying at and 3.5 miles from where his mobile phone last pinged in the rugged Rural de Teno park, where search efforts have been concentrated.

It comes as Jay’s father accused the Spanish police of keeping the family in the dark over the search for the missing British teenager.

Warren Slater said that although some officers had been ‘brilliant’, he was becoming increasingly frustrated by the lack of communication from others as he desperately tries to find his 19-year-old son.

‘Nobody’s told us,’ he told reporters. ‘The mountain police [have been] brilliant… but I don’t know how the other police [force] works.

‘They could be doing everything but if they are doing [something], they’re not telling us what they’re doing, if you understand what I’m saying.’

Choking back tears as he investigated a new possible CCTV sighting of Jay, he later told Sky News: ‘I’m his dad, I’m supposed to be able to do something for him.’ 

Last night. Debbie told MailOnline: ‘It’s been a week now and it’s been awful. I’ve barely slept and I’m at my wits end.

‘The Spanish police are doing a good job and we are getting updated from the consulate so we just put our faith in them.

‘I know people in the UK have come forward as well who were at the festival and they are giving details of what they know but I’m not being told about that.

‘Jay’s very good friends from home have also been over and have put up posters. They are good kids and like me just want him home.’

It also emerged on Monday that Spanish police are investigating Jay’s background to determine whether it is ‘relevant’ to his disappearance.

Detectives on the holiday island are trying to determine whether Jay’s disappearance is linked to his criminal past after the Spanish press revealed that he was previously involved in a machete attack that left a man fighting for his life.

Jay was part of an eight strong gang who split the skull of Tom Hilton after he was attacked with a machete, golf clubs and an axe.

Mr Hilton was left with injuries to his head which left his skull exposed as well as wounds to his shoulders and legs in the 2021 attack when he was 17 in Rishton, Lancashire.

In court he described the gang as a ‘pack of wolves’ and he was forced to run for his life through nearby woods before being set upon.

Details of the attack have been posted on social media sites appealing for help in tracking Jay down and many have described his disappearance as ‘karma’.

But in a Facebook message the gang’s victim, Mr Hilton said: ‘Whoever is writing on these TikToks, give it a rest. This young lad’s missing and his family’s heartbroken.

‘Put yourself in their shoes. Stop talking nonsense on social and get this lad found, mentioning my name all this and that.

‘Have some respect and help find this boy and get him back to his family.’

A report of the attack in the Manchester Evening News from last August describes how throughout the case all eight laughed and joked with Judge Philip Parry telling Preston Crown Court they had found the trial ‘amusing’.

Passing sentence Judge Parry said: ‘Many of you have found these proceedings amusing throughout the trial and yesterday and today, showing disrespect to the court.

‘I hope for the sake of all your families, the public and the people who have offered you jobs and apprenticeships and the sort that you all grow up.

‘Every one of you deserves to be sent to youth detention. 

‘Some of you played a more active role in the violent disorder than others, some of you carried weapons, some wore balaclavas but the seriousness of the this is the group nature of it.

‘As a group you were all more threatening than you would have been as individuals.’

He added that if they had been convicted of the more serious charge of section 18 wounding, they would all have gone to youth custody.

However, he said he took the rehabilitative approach when sentencing them for violent disorder and further offences including witness intimidation, attempted robbery and conspiracy to supply class A drugs.

Jay was given an 18-month community order with 25 days rehabilitation activities and 150 hours unpaid work for violent disorder – and he went on holiday to Tenerife last week after completing most of his sentence.

Details of his criminal past were reported by El Dia, a local newspaper for the Canary Islands.

The headline read ‘The past of the young British man who disappeared in Tenerife. Slater beat up a teenager along with seven other people.’

They went on to describe in detail the court case adding that he had a ‘black mark in his past’.

Jay’s conviction has led a number of amateur sleuths and psychics spread wild, false and even malicious theories about his disappearance on social media – including the sick idea that he has faked his disappearance to pocket the GoFundMe cash.

Some cruel trolls have even made the unfounded claim that he has been kidnapped after a drugs deal went wrong with criminal enforcers holding him to pay back the debt. 

Others have alleged that he lost the drugs or pocketed the money himself and is lying low until the heat dies down.

The speculation was fuelled when, shortly after he vanished, Jay’s mother, school finance officer Debbie Duncan, 55, was sent a menacing Snapchat message that read: ‘Kiss goodbye to your boy, you’re never going to see him again, he owes me a lot of money.’ 

Spanish police say they are not ‘ruling anything out’ – and a source told MailOnline: ‘In cases of missing people it’s natural to investigate their background in case it’s relevant to the hunt.

‘This case is unusual as it’s been a week and there has been no sighting or leads on him at all and searches have thrown up no clues.

‘We have to consider the possibility of something else happening.’

His mother Debbie is convinced he has been ‘taken’ and appealed to anyone who was holding him to let him go.

She said: ‘What happened in court is irrelevant, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. What matters more than anything is that my son is missing and we need to find him.’

Jay is known to have left an end of festival afterparty at around 5am and headed off to the rural village of Masca, 19 miles from Playa des Los Americas in south Tenerife, with two British men.

From there he sent Lucy and his mother two pictures on Snapchat showing him outside the white washed two bedroom farm house and he said he was going to try and make an 11 hour walk back after missing the bus.

The two men who hired the Airbnb have been questioned by Spanish police but have since returned to Britain, much to the amazement of family and friends.

Lucy told MailOnline that when she tracked the house down and asked the men where Jay was they seemed ‘startled and surprised’ that she had found them and told her he had left to try and catch bus back.

On Saturday Lucy – who set up the GoFundMe page for Jay asking for the specific sum of £30,000 – was questioned at length by police although there is no suggestion that she has any involvement in his disappearance. 

However, questions have been raised about the donations and where exactly they are going – especially as Debbie has been added and then removed as a beneficiary several times since the page was opened last Thursday.

One woman named as Charlotte C wrote: ‘Unfortunately I have to donate the minimum of £5 in order to leave a comment. However, I feel this is important to highlight the concerns regarding this GoFundMe.

‘It is essential that all funds going towards Jay Slater’s GoFundMe page are put on hold until further details or evidence from the police are released and pending a thorough and meticulous investigation.’

Another donor Andy S, who also contributed £5, said: ‘I echo Charlotte C’s concerns. I have raised these on numerous platforms (as have many, many others) and no action has been taken.

‘I understand that advice may have been given not to interact but there has not been one update on this GFM to address such concerns. It is not difficult to update the bio.

‘The media have even highlighted the public’s concerns in this respect. Common sense tells me that Organisers/Beneficiaries would have responded to this on this platform at least.

‘The general public have raised almost £30k for this cause which has obviously touched the nation. Therefore, please, please address the points raised. My thoughts remain with those concerned.’

Meanwhile in a Facebook post early on Monday Debbie addressed the concerns over the GoFundMe Page set up for him as which has attracted more than £32,000 in donations.

She said: ‘I really am saddened by all your comments. You seem to be so bothered about this GoFundMe page. I really hope I am not taking my son home in a body bag.

‘The funds are not released and won’t be if not needed. I really cannot believe the British public are not supporting me in trying to find Jay.

‘This may happen to any of you one day. Very let down by you all.’

She later updated the post and said: ‘Update!! Sorry that you have taken this the wrong way. I am overwhelmed with the generosity.

‘What I meant was VERBAL support. I really hope I don’t need this money. If it’s not needed it all gets refunded to the people who really did care.’

Search teams in Tenerife narrowed their efforts over the weekend on small buildings close to where his phone last pinged.

Officers from the Guardia Civil in the Canary Islands could be seen circling two structures at the bottom of a ravine in Rural de Teno Park on Sunday.

Efforts appeared to be solely focused on the one area after days of searches in the village of Masca and the surrounding landscape.

The efforts come after the teenager’s mother issued a direct plea to her missing son, saying: ‘We just need you home.’

Debbie Duncan said she had ‘not slept’ since the 19-year-old disappeared.

Mr Slater was last seen wearing a white T-shirt with shorts and trainers, and carrying a black bag.