Jay Slater: British TikTok user dismisses final police search for missing teenager as ‘massive PR thing’
A volunteer who flew out to Tenerife to help try to find missing Jay Slater has dismissed the final police search for the British teenager as a “massive PR thing”.
Paul Arnott, who has been sharing clips of his own search effort on TikTok, told Sky News last week that he flew out to Tenerife when he heard the 19-year-old’s family “needed help”.
Mr Slater was last seen on Monday 17 June after he told a friend he planned to walk from the northwestern village of Masca to his holiday accommodation in Los Cristianos in the south – a journey that would take 11 hours on foot.
Police on the island confirmed on Sunday that the search for Mr Slater had been called off nearly two weeks after his disappearance.
It came a day after police urged volunteers to come forward to help with a large-scale search in the Masca area.
Recording a TikTok video from the site on Saturday, Mr Arnott said: “So guys I’ve literally been waiting for absolutely ages now, this is a massive PR thing I’m telling you now… There’s people everywhere, literally people everywhere and nobody is doing anything.”
He added: “I’ve been up here for ages. Yeah there’s people everywhere, everyone’s still in their cars… I’m going to crack on with the search for Jay in the area where I think he is… I’ve been so quiet about this. I’m not doing it anymore people, I’m sick of this crap.”
Paul Arnott has been sharing clips of his own search for Mr Slater on social media
In a follow up video, he says: “I’m so blooming stressed and annoyed about what’s just happened. I thought today was going to be so productive, I thought so many people were going to show up.
“I thought it was going to be really organised… I thought it was going to be massive and it’s not.”
A group of around 30 to 40 volunteers turned up to help rescue teams on Saturday – scouring a huge area of rugged and hilly terrain.
It came after Mr Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, his father Warren and brother Zak flew out to help police and mountain rescue teams search for the teenager shortly after he first disappeared.
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Jay Slater and his mother Debbie Duncan. Pic: Lucy Law
Ms Duncan told The Daily Telegraph last week that she has “every faith” in the police who have been trying to find her son.
She also said she couldn’t “thank Paul Arnott enough” for his efforts.
Police said they are keeping the investigation into Mr Slater’s disappearance open after they ended their search effort on Sunday.
However, they added they could yet open up searches in the south of the island, but have not provided an update.
‘I’ve seen no posters’
A British man who travelled to the island after Mr Slater’s disappearance told Sky News: “I was a little bit more scared about coming here than I would have been, and (me and my friend) have made sure we have each other’s locations, which we wouldn’t have done before all this happened.”
A British woman on holiday on the island said it was “disappointing” police had ended their search and added: “He’s a young boy that has a family, and to know that he is out there somewhere, it is quite terrifying.”
Another man from the UK who is holidaying in Tenerife said: “I’ve been here a week, I’ve seen no posters, hardly any police patrols going around, it’s like nothing’s happened really.”
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Mr Slater’s father: ‘I just want him back’
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What were Jay Slater’s last known movements?
Mr Slater had been holidaying with friends in southern Tenerife before travelling to the northwestern mountain village of Masca with two people he met at the NRG music festival on Sunday 16 June.
After the event ended, he got in a car and travelled to a small Airbnb in Masca with two men, who police said on Saturday are “not relevant” to the case.
Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle near Blackburn in Lancashire, told a friend over the phone at 8.30am the following morning that he was walking back to his holiday accommodation after missing a bus.
He also said he was lost, in need of water, and only had 1% charge on his phone.
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‘Jay Slater asked me for bus times’
The last person to see Mr Slater was Masca resident Ofelia Medina Hernandez who spoke to the teenager on Monday 17 June.
Ms Hernandez said she told him a bus was due at 10am as he seemingly hoped to get back to his accommodation.
However, he set off walking – and she said she later drove past him while he was “walking fast”.
A GoFundMe appeal called Get Jay Slater Home was set up by his friend Lucy Law and had raised more than £43,000 as the police search came to an end.
A teenage girl who was killed after getting out of a police car on the M5 in Somerset has been named.
Tamzin Hall, 17 and from Wellington, was hit by a vehicle that was travelling southbound between junction 24 for Bridgwater and junction 25 for Taunton shortly after 11pm on Monday.
She had exited a police vehicle that had stopped on the northbound side of the motorway while transporting her.
A mandatory referral was made to the Independent Office for Police Conduct, which is now carrying out its own investigation into what happened.
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Avon and Somerset Police said: “Our thoughts and sympathies go out to Tamzin’s family for their devastating loss.
“A specially-trained family liaison officer remains in contact with them to keep them updated and to provide support.
“The family have asked for privacy at this difficult time.”
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The police watchdog, the IOPC, has been asked to investigate.
In a statement, director David Ford, said: “This was a truly tragic incident and my thoughts are with Tamzin’s family and friends and everyone affected by the events of that evening.
“We are contacting her family to express our sympathies, explain our role, and set out how our investigation will progress. We will keep them fully updated as our investigation continues.”
Paramedics attended the motorway within minutes of the girl being hit but she was pronounced dead at the scene.
The motorway was closed in both directions while investigations took place. It was fully reopened shortly after 11am on Tuesday, Nationals Highways said.
A survivors group advocating for women allegedly assaulted by Mohamed al Fayed has said it is “grateful another abuser has been unmasked”, after allegations his brother Salah also participated in the abuse.
Justice for Harrods Survivors says it has “credible evidence” suggesting the sexual abuse allegedly perpetrated at Harrods and the billionaire’s properties “was not limited to Mr al Fayed himself”.
The group’s statement comes after three women told BBC News they were sexually assaulted by al Fayed’s brother, Salah.
One woman said she was raped by Mohamed al Fayed while working at Harrods.
Helen, who has waived her right to anonymity, said she then took a job working for his brother as an escape. She alleges she was drugged and sexually assaulted while working at Salah’s home on Park Lane, London.
Two other women have told the BBC they were taken to Monaco and the South of France, where Salah sexually abused them.
Mohamed al Fayed. Pic: AP
The Justice for Harrod Survivors representatives said: “We are proud to support the survivors of Salah Fayed’s abuse and are committed to achieving justice for them, no matter what it takes.”
The group added it “looks forward to the others on whom we have credible evidence – whether abusers themselves or enablers facilitating that abuse – being exposed in due course”.
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Salah was one of the three Fayed brothers who co-owned Harrods.
The business, which was sold to Qatar Holdings when Mohamed al Fayed retired in 2010, has said it “supports the bravery of these women in coming forward”.
A statement issued by the famous store on Thursday evening continued: “We encourage these survivors to come forward and make their claims to the Harrods scheme, where they can apply for compensation, as well as support from a counselling perspective and through an independent survivor advocate.
“We also hope that they are looking at every appropriate avenue to them in their pursuit of justice, whether that be Harrods, the police or the Fayed family and estate.”
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Bianca Gascoigne speaks about Al Fayed abuse
The Justice for Harrods Survivors group previously said more than 400 people had contacted them regarding accusations about Mohamed al Fayed, who died last year.
One of those alleged to have been abused is Bianca Gascoigne, the daughter of former England player Paul.
Speaking to Sky News in October, Gascoigne said she was groomed and sexually assaulted by al Fayed when she worked at Harrods as a teenager.
UK
Wes Streeting ‘crossed the line’ by opposing assisted dying in public, says Labour peer Harriet Harman
Wes Streeting “crossed the line” by opposing assisted dying in public and the argument shouldn’t “come down to resources”, a Labour peer has said.
Speaking on Sky News’ Electoral Dysfunction podcast, Baroness Harriet Harman criticised the health secretary for revealing how he is going to vote on the matter when it comes before parliament later this month.
MPs are being given a free vote, meaning they can side with their conscience and not party lines, so the government is supposed to be staying neutral.
But Mr Streeting has made clear he will vote against legalising assisted dying, citing concerns end-of-life care is not good enough for people to make an informed choice, and that some could feel pressured into the decision to save the NHS money.
He has also ordered a review into the potential costs of changing the law, warning it could come at the expense of other NHS services if implemented.
Baroness Harman said Mr Streeting has “crossed the line in two ways”.
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“He should not have said how he was going to vote, because that breaches neutrality and sends a signal,” she said.
“And secondly… he’s said the problem is that it will cost money to bring in an assisted dying measure, and therefore he will have to cut other services.
“But paradoxically, he also said it would be a slippery slope because people will be forced to bring about their own death in order to save the NHS money. Well, it can’t be doing both things.
“It can’t be both costing the NHS money and saving the NHS money.”
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Review into assisted dying costs
Baroness Harman said the argument “should not come down to resources” as it is a “huge moral issue” affecting “only a tiny number of people”.
She added that people should not mistake Mr Streeting for being “a kind of proxy for Keir Starmer”.
“The government is genuinely neutral and all of those backbenchers, they can vote whichever way they want,” she added.
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‘Fix care before assisted dying legislation’
Why assisted dying is controversial – and where it’s already legal
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has previously expressed support for assisted dying, but it is not clear how he intends to vote on the issue or if he will make his decision public ahead of time.
The cabinet has varying views on the topic, with the likes of Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood siding with Mr Streeting in her opposition but Energy Secretary Ed Miliband being for it.
Energy Security and Net Zero Secretary Ed Miliband is said to support the bill. Pic: Reuters
Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood has concerns. Pic: Reuters
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The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill is being championed by Labour backbencher Kim Leadbeater, who wants to give people with six months left to live the choice to end their lives.
Under her proposals, two independent doctors must confirm a patient is eligible for assisted dying and a High Court judge must give their approval.
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Labour MP Kim Leadbeater discusses End of Life Bill
The bill will also include punishments of up to 14 years in prison for those who break the law, including coercing someone into ending their own life.
MPs will debate and vote on the legislation on 29 November, in what will be the first Commons vote on assisted dying since 2015, when the proposal was defeated.
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