ONE of the last people to see Jay Slater alive has spoken of the last time he spoke to the teenager before he tragically fell to his death.
Convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, 31, took the 19-year-old British man back to an Airbnb in Masca the night before he disappeared on June 17.
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Ayub Qassim talks about his recent conversations with Jay Slater Credit: The Central Club/YouTube
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Jay Slater went missing after spending the night with Qassim Credit: Ian Whittaker
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The Airbnb where Qassim and Jay stayed the night before the Brit disappeared Credit: Steve Reigate
Qassim has always denied any involvement in Jay’s death after the Lancashire teenager was discovered in a ravine not far from the Airbnb.
He says Jay spent the night at the £40-a-night house before leaving in the early hours of the morning.
Qassim, from Barking, east London, claims he offered Jay a lift to his hotel complex but the teenager refused and hurriedly left before disappearing.
Four months after Jay’s funeral, Qassim gave a two-hour interview talking about the last time he saw Jay.
Speaking on The Central Club podcast, he said he couldn’t blame himself for Jay’s tragic death because he left him “in one piece”.
Jay was “pretty laid back” the entire time he was at the Airbnb and only asked for a cigarette and a blanket, Qassim said.
He admitted he had “survivor’s guilt” when he heard Jay was missing, but said it felt like an “I told you so” moment because Jay refused to accept a ride back.
Qassim said he spoke to his friend who first told him that Jay hadn’t returned to his friends and said: “My reaction was to my friend, I told him I’d take him in a few hours if he just waited.
“That’s your problem. I’m going to bed. Your mate is cute, he came in one piece, he left in one piece, I did my part
“The moment he said ‘I’m going’ and I shut my door, I’m out of this.”
Jay Slater’s mum Debbie speaks of the anguish of ‘so many unanswered questions’ after her son’s tragic disappearance from Tenerife
He added, “I’m sorry I couldn’t be your foreign suspect, I’m sorry, I’m not the one for this whole situation.”
Qassim is believed to have driven Jay back to the Airbnb after a night of partying at the NRG festival in Papagayo, Playa de las Americas.
The couple was joined by a third man who has yet to be officially identified, but his name is Rocky.
Jay was said to be silent on the drive back to the rental cabin and was mostly on the phone in the back seat.
Qassim has now also revealed that he knew Jay was concerned about staying at the Airbnb.
He said: “I could tell he didn’t want to be there.”
The man, who lives in London, also admitted he had been texted by a friend who had spoken to Jay the morning of his disappearance.
In one text, Jay asks about Qassim and a third man staying with them, saying, “Are these guys cute?”.
The 31-year-old said on the podcast: “My friend said he texted ‘Is your friend up there okay’ and my guy was like ‘Oh come on, he’s cute.’
“That was about 10-20 minutes before he left. I believe there was a lot of texting back and forth.”
“Obviously something was going through his head,” he added.
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Qassim is a convicted drug dealer
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Jay spent the night partying at NRG Festival in Papagayo before Qassim took him back to AirbnbCredit: Ian Whittaker
Jay then decided that he would leave and return to his friends Lucy Law and Brad Hargreaves who were staying at a hotel near the coast of Tenerife.
Qassim says he offered him a ride again, but Jay planned to catch the bus instead after talking to a neighbor who asked Qassim to move his car.
A neighbor, Ofelia Medina Hernandez, told Jay that the bus comes every 10 minutes.
Jay never caught the bus and instead decided to attempt the 10-hour journey back to his hotel.
It is believed that during this perilous journey, he slipped on the rocky terrain and fell to his death.
It is still not clear why the teenager did not wait for the bus or go back to Qassim or Ofelia to ask for help.
Qassim said that when Jay got on the bus, he felt like he was no longer responsible: “When someone tells you they just want to go, you don’t know what’s going through your head. They just want to go.
“I’m not going to be like ‘you don’t go, you stay’. I just think you’re safe sitting at the bus stop.”
Officers are believed to have spoken to Qassim and Rocky in the days following Jay’s disappearance and ruled out any involvement in the case.
Men were considered “irrelevant”.
Qassim was sentenced to nine years in prison in 2015 for his role as the ringleader of a London gang that dealt heroin and crack cocaine in Cardiff.
Jay’s grieving mother Debbie Duncan still wants answers from Qassim and Rocky about what happened to her son.
She told The Sun she wanted to question both men about why they picked him up from the party and how he ended up leaving on his own.
It comes as Qassim also revealed he spent some time with Jay and his friend Brad in the days before he disappeared.
A large group of friends went to watch England play Serbia during Euro 2024 and Qassim met Jay through a mutual friend.
The timeline of the tragic case
JAY’S body has finally been found after weeks of agony for the teenager’s friends and family with many questions still unanswered – here’s how events unfolded…
Sunday, June 16: Jay and his friends party on the last day of the NRG music festival held at the Papagayo nightclub in Playa de la Americas, Tenerife.
June 17 3-6am: Jay goes with Ayub Qassim and another man to a £40-a-night Airbnb 14 miles away in the village of Masca.
7.30am: Jay shares a photo on Snapchat of himself standing in the doorway of an Airbnb.
8.50am: Calls friend Lucy Mae Law and says he’s “lost in the middle of nowhere” with no water, a cut on his leg and one per cent on his phone.
Tuesday, June 18: Friend search area, but no sign of Jay. Local police and mountain rescue teams begin an official search. Jay’s mother Debbie Duncan is flying to Tenerife.
19.-20. June: Spanish police send in drones, dogs and a helicopter, but find no leads. The search moves to Los Cristianos amid a possible sighting, but that has been ruled out and they return to Rural de Teno, near Masca.
June 21: Lancashire Police offer support but are refused.
June 22: Mum Debbie makes an emotional appeal to Jay, saying: “We just need you home.”
June 24: Claims that Jay has been seen in Santiago del Teide — close to where he disappeared — and the family believe a grainy CCTV image could be his image.
June 25: Debbie urges her son to come home as more friends fly in and TV detective Mark Williams-Thomas joins the search.
June 29: The police removed Mr. Qassim and another man at Airbnb.
June 30: Spanish police officially suspend the hunt, but say the investigation “remains open.” His family continues the search.
July 15: A helicopter search team found a body near where his phone last pinged. His possessions were discovered next to human remains. Spanish police say this indicates an “accidental fall”.
August 5: Tenerife authorities confirm that a body has been found in the mountainous area of the island of Jayevo.
August 10: Jay’s funeral is held at Accrington Crematorium, Lancs, with hundreds of mourners gathered to remember the “one-of-a-kind” teenager
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Jay posted the last Snapchat from the steps of the Airbnb the morning he disappeared
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Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan and brother Zak at his funeral Credit: Louis Wood
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Debbie and dad Warren went to Tenerife to help search for their son Credit: Ian Whittaker
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