‘Why did he not want to be there?’: Jay Slater’s mum demands answers from Airbnb pals ‘Rocky & Johnny Vegas’
THE grieving mum of Jay Slater says she would like to quiz the two men who took the teenager to their Airbnb before his death.
Devastated Debbie Duncan said she has “so many questions” over Jay’s final hours before he vanished in Tenerife.
Debbie, 56, struggled to fight back tears as she told how she “could not get her head around” why Jay, 19, got into a car with two older men and went to their remote Airbnb apartment.
Jay – who went on holiday with pals Lucy Mae Law and Bradley Hargreaves – went missing on June 17 after leaving the holiday let apartment around 8am.
Apprentice bricklayer Jay, of Oswaldtwistle, Lancs called Lucy, 18, at 8.50 am saying he was lost and dehydrated and had just one per cent phone battery.
His mobile last pinged in the Rural de Teno Park as he attempted the perilous 11-hour to his own accommodation 25 miles away in Los Cristianos.
In her first emotional interview since Jay’s body was found on July 15, Debbie told how she was tormented over why travelled almost an hour in a car to remote Masca.
The teenager had been at the NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas before getting into a car between 5am and 6am with the two men.
Debbie believed Jay could have left the apartment fearing for his safety the next morning – because he would never let his phone run out of charge.
She told The Sun: “Why did he leave there without charging his phone. He would always charge his phone. There are so many questions”
One of the two men has been revealed to be convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, of east London, – who goes by the name ‘Johnny Vegas’ – while the other was an associate dubbed ‘Rocky’.
Debbie wept as she said: “I don’t know what he thought he was doing by going with these two guys. I really don’t know.
“I can’t get my head round why he just didn’t go back to his own friends, and went with them.
“In our minds, we think he’s not realised where he was going.
“And it was dark. I just think he’s not even thought about or knew which direction he was going.”
Jay posted a Snapchat picture of himself smoking on the doorstep of the apartment at 7.30am.
In her first interview since Jay’s death, Debbie told The Sun…
- How final videos of Jay clubbing ‘haunt’ her
- How vicious trolls have ‘destroyed’ her with thousands of calls and messages
- She received a vile letter from a troll just days after her Jay’s funeral
- Her torment over a GoFundMe page she didn’t ask for
- How Jay really got caught up in ‘gang attack’ that landed him with conviction
- She ‘just screamed’ when cops found her son’s body
- In her final call to Jay they said ‘I love you’
- She denies rumours Jay stole £12k watch & fell foul of Tenerife drug cartel
- Jay was ‘popular lad’ who didn’t deserve trolls’ abuse
- Her family went sent vile fake images of ‘kidnapped’ Jay
He then walked the wrong way after apparently being told there was no bus to his hotel until 10am.
Jay was reported missing to cops on the island that morning.
Spanish police allowed the two men to leave Tenerife and quickly said they were “not relevant” to the investigation.
Qassim, 31 – who booked the Airbnb under a false name – later said: “Jay came to the house alive and he left the house alive.”
But talking about Spanish detectives, Debbie said: “I don’t know why they interviewed and let them go. I don’t know on what day they interviewed them.”
She said she had not heard from the men who spent Jay’s last living hours with him – but would like to quiz them.
Debbie said: “I would like to speak to them, probably in time.
“I would ask what was happening in Jay’s mind and why did he leave?”
Qassim and ‘Rocky’ spoke on a live stream in the days after Jay’s body was found and hit back at social media speculation.
Qassim said: “If I’m guilty then arrest me then, what are you on about?
“When you’re telling the truth you don’t slip up.”
The pair insisted Jay suffered a “tragic accident”.
Qassim was put behind bars for nine years in 2015 as the ringleader of a London-based gang dealing heroin and crack cocaine in Cardiff.
Referring to a comment about taking Jay back to the holiday cottage, Qassim said: “Took him home? No one took no-one bro. He invited himself. Think bro, use your head.
“How am I feeling after this? It’s mental mate, it’s actually mad. Do you know what I’m saying, it’s actually mental man.”
When asked about how Jay was feeling, Qassim said: “I don’t know why he was scared and he ain’t here to answer that question.
“I don’t want to say, people could be going through something in their own heads, who knows, do you know what I’m saying?”.
'Haunted by final videos'
JAY Slater’s devastated mum has told how she is “haunted” by videos of her son raving the night before he vanished.
The clips, which she has seen since his tragic death, show Jay bare-chested on the dancefloor of the Papagayo nightclub, swaying around.
The 19-year-old went to Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas in Tenerife with friends for the final night of the NRG festival on June 16.
Clips were shared on social media after Jay disappeared showing him on the crowded dance floor, with music blaring in the background.
One video showed Jay walking through a sea of clubbers with sunglasses propped on his head.
In another, the teen could be seen with his shirt hanging around his neck, seemingly unsteady on his feet.
Heartbroken mum Debbie said the videos “absolutely haunt” her.
She said he liked drinks including spiced rum and coke and disaronno – and accepts he could have taken drugs.
Debbie told The Sun: “Obviously at these events drugs are knocking around and lots of people taking them.
“I don’t know whether he was taking drugs that night or not, but I’m not going to deny that people at these events take drugs and there are drugs at those kind of resorts.”
Debbie – who has considered whether Jay was ‘spiked’ – added: “The videos I’ve seen absolutely haunt me, because I’ve never, ever seen him like that before.
“There’s a video of him, kind of staggering back and he has never been in that state.”