Jay Slater's best friends shed new light on tragedy – as inquest to hear from hols pal who was the last to see him alive

The Sun

24-07-2025

THE inquest into Jay Slater's death had today resumed - two months after the initial hearing left his mum begging for answers.
Heartbroken Debbie Duncan pleaded with the coroner to summon crucial witnesses to the stand - including the teen's two friends and the men he went back to an Airbnb with.
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Lucy Law, Brad Hargreaves, Ayub Qassim and Steven Roccas failed to attend the first inquest hearing back in May.
Jay's devastated mum Debbie Duncan made an emotional plea to the coroner for vital witnesses to be traced.
She said: "There are things that we want to question. We want these people in front of us.
"My son went on holiday and didn't come back so there are questions we need to ask. Please."
The hearing was adjourned so a final effort could be made to track down crucial witnesses.
Lucy is due to give evidence via video link today, while Brad has spoken in person at court.
Qassim, one of the final people to see Jay alive, is expected to address the hearing via videolink from another country.
The 19-year-old's body was found in a ravine in the remote Rural de Teno National Park last July after an agonising 29-day search.
Apprentice bricklayer Jay flew to the Spanish island last June to attend the NRG music festival in Playa de las Americas with two friends, Lucy and Brad.
After a night of partying on June 17, the teen travelled to an Airbnb apartment in Masca with two men - convicted drug dealer Qassim and Roccas.
Jay, of Oswaldtwistle, Lancs, phoned Brad after he left the Airbnb at around 8am and attempted to make the treacherous walk to his holiday apartment in sweltering heat.
The Brit made a heartbreaking final call to Lucy saying he had cut his leg, was lost, dehydrated and had just one per cent battery on his phone.
Scroll down to read the latest on the Jay Slater inquest...
Today, 09:10 By Georgie English
Tenerife hotspot where Jay Slater died is WORSE a year on
The streets in notorious Tenerife party town Playa de las Americas, where British teen Jay Slater took a powerful cocktail of drugs before falling to his death is still heaving with blatant criminality.
Sun reporters went out to the strip and found people luring tourists into a bar with the promise of 'a free line' of cocaine with their first drink.
Two prostitutes in skin-tight bodycon dresses could be seen loitering outside while down the road, 'looky-looky' men circulate, offering Class-A drugs.
A police car crawls past, its head-lights on the crowds of holiday-makers, but the officers inside seem blind to the blatant criminality.
Student Georgina Haywood, 19, who had just flown in from Manchester with her boyfriend, told us: 'We went into a bar next to KFC and I wouldn't go back again.
'Looky-looky men were all around offering cheap drugs and we've heard if you buy them, they will mug you as soon as they see the cash.
'On the transfer bus over here we were talking to three men who told us they'd been robbed every time they'd come here."
Today, 09:04 By Katie Davis
Route Jay took was 'steep and dangerous'
At the last hearing, Dutch rescue team Signi Zoekhonden told the hearing how the route Jay took was "pretty easy" to begin with but where his body was found is "really steep and dangerous".
The volunteers said they "can imagine how Jay thought he was going to make it" from the Airbnb back to the coast.
Jay was attempting the treacherous 10-hour walk back to his apartment in Los Cristianos when he called Lucy to say he was lost.
DCI Rachel Higson, head of digital media investigations at Lancashire Police, told the hearing that Jay's phone recorded "a lot of steps and inclines" between 7.59am and 8.49am.
His mobile last pinged in the mountainous Rural de Teno Park after Jay walked the wrong way from the Airbnb, and DCI Higson said there was "no data recorded" after 8.49:51am.
After a month-long search, Jay's body was found in a ravine on July 15 last year - near where his phone last pinged.
A post-mortem examination concluded he died of traumatic head injuries, consistent with a fall from height.
Home Office pathologist Dr Richard Shepherd told the inquest Jay suffered a "heavy fall from height" and the "devastating" effects would have been "immediate".
Today, 09:00 By Katie Davis
I was there when Jay's body was found – this is why the case still haunts me
"You covered Jay Slater, didn't you?"
It's a question I've been asked time and again for the best part of a year now.
And every time it makes my stomach churn as their eyes light up, hoping I will lift the lid on the ridiculous conspiracy theories they've lapped up.
Jay's story is one I have followed from the moment he went missing in Tenerife on June 17 last year - and it is one of those cases that will never leave me.
I was never convinced by the relentless armchair detectives - nor the outlets that regurgitated baseless theories.
Outrageous claims include that Jay skipped the island on a yacht, fell foul of a drug cartel, and had been tied up hostage with chains.
Jay's grieving mum wept as she opened up to me following his untimely death - and as I looked her in the eyes, I could feel the unspeakable toll of pain she was suffering.
I was the only reporter in the mountains of Masca when police confirmed Jay's body had been found, and I can still feel the shock pulsing through me after a long 29-day search.
Today, 08:56 By Katie Davis
Why was the last hearing adjourned?
The last inquest hearing into Jay's death was adjourned after his grieving mum begged the coroner to summon crucial witnesses.
Senior Coroner Dr James Adeley told the hearing in May that Lucy is among those who could not be tracked down to give evidence.
He said Lucy and Brad - who attended Jay's funeral in Accrington last August - "can't be located".
Dr Adeley told Preston Coroner's Court as Jay's family sat in silence: "We can't find them.
"They have stopped responding to phone calls.
"When drugs are involved in a death, the witnesses are less than forthcoming and do not wish to speak to the authorities."
Coroner's officer Alice Swarbrick also revealed extensive attempts to trace other witnesses, including Qassim who the Met Police were unable to locate.
Mum Debbie pleaded for the coroner to do more to summon Qassim and the other man Jay went to the Airbnb with, Steven Roccas.
Dr Adeley paused the hearing before adjourning it to today.