The key Jay Slater witness with 'crucial evidence' who cannot be traced

A former British police detective has come forward with claims that a key witness in the Jay Slater case, who was not tracked down by the coroner, has provided him with "crucial evidence".

Mark Williams-Thomas described Wednesday's (May 21) inquest as "disappointing" and said as a result he had "decided to speak out on a number of points". Last year he flew to Tenerife to work for the Oswaldtwistle teenager's family following his sudden disappearance.

He has revealed that he obtained testimony from Ayub Qassim, a convicted drug dealer, which sheds light on Jay's decision-making on the day of his tragic death. Qassim, along with his friend Steven Roccas, had rented an Airbnb near Masca, which the 19-year-old visited in the hours leading up to his death.

Despite their significance to the case, neither Qassim nor Roccas attended the inquest hearing, with the court being informed that their whereabouts are currently unknown. Mr Williams-Thomas said: "The most important witness the police have also been unable to trace is Ayub Qassim.

"It's from Ayub I have some very crucial evidence that has not yet been made public and does provide, I believe, greater context as to why Jay left that property on that morning and took the decision to walk.

"Debbie was asked yesterday was she happy for the statements of Ayub and Roccas to be read out and she said 'no, I want them to attend court'. Quite rightly so."

Mr Williams-Thomas says he is happy to share his information with both the Spanish and British authorities, but he suggested the Spanish authorities have questions to answer about their investigation, the Mirror reports.

He said: "At the time I offered all my evidence to the Spanish police, but they never responded. I remain happy to share everything I have with them. Equally, I'm happy to share all my information with Lancashire Police.

"I think it's fair to say that after yesterday's hearing the family will feel disappointed and certainly does not leave one with the view that the police investigation has been both thorough and meticulous. To add to the questionable quality of the police investigation, one important image relating to the watch being stolen apparently has now been deleted by the police."

Mr Williams-Thomas described Wednesday's inquest as "disappointing" and said as a result he had "decided to speak out on a number of points". He said: "My thoughts remain with Debbie and the family, especially as a time when they have told how poor the police investigation has been.

"As the family of a loved one, who has died requiring a police investigation, all they want to know is that that investigation has been thorough, has spoken to all the witnesses, has been detailed and crucially, they have retained and collected all the evidence that relates to that investigation."

Mr Williams-Thomas previously revealed that Jay had boasted of stealing an expensive watch and had been carrying two knives, which was confirmed at Wednesday's inquest. He said: "I can confirm that although Jay was pictured with two knives in his waist as he stood on the steps of that rental, the knives I'm told were not found with him. And crucially the knives, I'm told, were still in that apartment so they didn't leave that property when he left."

The inquest at Preston Coroner's Court heard Jay had a fractured skull and party drugs in his system when he was found in a remote area of Tenerife and died from "devastating" injuries after vanishing in the mountains of the island in the Canaries for 28 days last summer.

The teenager had flown out to attend a music festival with pals before becoming separated from them after attending the NRG Festival in the Los Cristianos area. Toxicology expert Dr Stephanie Martin told the hearing there were difficulties checking for the presence of drugs or alcohol as the body was severely decomposed.

But she said analysis showed traces of the presence of MDMA and MDA, commonly known as ecstasy, along with cocaine and alcohol. Spanish samples also showed the presence of ketamine when analysed, which was not found in the UK samples, the hearing was told.

Jay's distraught mum Debbie asked coroner Dr James Adeley to adjourn the hearing until several witnesses who could not be located, including Jay's friends, are found. As well as Qassim and Roccas, they also include Jay's pals Lucy Law, Brandon Hodges and Bradley Geoghegan, who also uses the surname Hargreaves.

Mr Williams-Thomas said: "I note the police have been unable to find Lucy Law to attend the hearing. I have many recordings and conversations with Lucy, who fully co-operated right from the very beginning and helped me piece together the events of that evening and of the morning Jay left."

He added: "Whilst I took a great deal of criticism throughout my coverage of the case, looking back, it's clear, now that the evidence has come out of court and in particular with regard to pathologists, that sadly it was a tragic accident. There was no third party involvement, which I was very clear to make an assessment on, in the very early days."

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