Jay Slater: British teen missing in Tenerife had cut his leg and didn’t know where he was, friend says
A British teenager who is missing in Tenerife had “cut his leg on a cactus” and did not know where he was, a friend has told Sky News.
Lucy Law said 19-year-old Jay Slater is “not a stupid boy” and would have flagged down any passing car or spoken to passers by.
Mr Slater, from Lancashire, has been missing on the Spanish island since Monday morning.
Jay Slater. Pic: Lucy Law
His mother, a team of mountain rescuers, and the local civil guard are searching for him after he disappeared while holidaying with friends.
Ms Law said he rang her to say he “didn’t know where he was”, that he “needed a drink” and had “cut his leg on a cactus”.
Despite his mobile phone battery being down to 1% he managed to send her a photo of his location.
When she told him to return to where he had walked from, he said he did not know where that was, Ms Law said.
He was without food and water, she added, and had been in a T-shirt and shorts. “It’s very warm in the day and very cold at night,” she told the UK Tonight programme on Sky News.
“So in the day he’s going to be really warm without a drink, and then at night he’s going to be very cold without any suitable clothing.”
Ms Law and others have printed off posters in both Spanish and English and have plastered them “everywhere”, she said.
Jay Slater’s phone’s last live location was Rural de Teno Park. The search has also focused on Los Cristianos
Soon after Mr Slater went missing, an American woman offered to drive Ms Law up into the mountains.
There was “literally no sign of him anywhere”, she said. “We drove around all day.”
Mr Slater had posted a picture online of some mountains next to a house he had been to.
Ms Law drove around looking for a lamp and some flowers seen in that picture.
“We managed to find the house,” she said. “I knocked on the door and there were two people there.”
They told Ms Law that Mr Slater had gone out for a cigarette before going back in and saying he wanted to go home.
Masca, Rural de Teno Park, Tenerife. Pic: iStock
“They told me he’d spoken to the next door neighbours and they’d told him there was a bus every 10 minutes back down to Los Cristianos.
“The bus stop was right next to the house. So obviously if he’d gone to get the bus he wouldn’t have got lost because it [the stop] was visible from the front door.”
Read more:
What we know so far about Jay Slater’s disappearance
The trip back down from the mountains is an hour’s drive. “Everything looks the same – it’s just a road and hills,” Ms Law said.
“I can’t understand why he would come out of the house and then decide he was going to walk. I think he maybe set off walking with battery and had not realised how far the walk actually is.”
There are “so many questions that are unanswered”, Mr Slater’s friend said.
Jay Slater and his mother, Debbie Duncan. Pic: Lucy Law
‘He’s not a stupid boy’
“The thing I find the most weird about this is the fact that there’s nobody that’s seen him.
“And he’s not a stupid boy – he’s got some nous about him.
“I’ve seen so many people up here and I’ve asked every single one if they’ve seen him – this is what I find weird.
“If he’d seen somebody, or a car, he would have flagged down the car – he would have said he needed a phone to contact someone.”
She added: “He would never have his family worrying like this – he would never have us worrying like this.
“If he saw someone, the first thing he would do is say ‘I need to ring my mum’ – I know that for a fact. He would never ever have his mum worrying like this.
“It’s just awful – I’ve never in my life been so worried.
“I’ve literally not slept at all since.”
The Spanish Civil Guard told UK media they are “doing everything possible” to find Mr Slater.
“A specialist mountain rescue and intervention group called the Greim have been mobilised.
“A police helicopter is also out and focusing on the area around the village of Masca.
“Other emergency services including firefighters have also been mobilised.”
Specialist search teams, police dogs and divers have been dispatched to find two sisters who vanished in Aberdeen three days ago.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32, were last seen on CCTV in the city’s Market Street at Victoria Bridge at about 2.12am on Tuesday.
The siblings were captured crossing the bridge and turning right onto a footpath next to the River Dee in the direction of Aberdeen Boat Club.
Henrietta Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Eliza Huszti. Pic: Police Scotland
Police Scotland has launched a major search and said it is carrying out “extensive inquires” in an effort to find the women.
Chief Inspector Darren Bruce said: “Local officers, led by specialist search advisors, are being assisted by resources including police dogs and our marine unit.”
Aberdeenshire Drone Services told Sky News it has offered to help in the search and is waiting to hear back from Police Scotland.
CCTV of the sisters. Pic: Police Scotland
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The sisters, from Aberdeen city centre, are described as slim with long brown hair.
Police said the Torry side of Victoria Bridge where the sisters were last seen contains many commercial and industrial units, with searches taking place in the vicinity.
The force urged businesses in and around the South Esplanade and Menzies Road area to review CCTV footage recorded in the early hours of Tuesday in case it captured anything of significance.
Drivers with relevant dashcam footage are also urged to come forward.
CI Bruce added: “We are continuing to speak to people who know Eliza and Henrietta and we urge anyone who has seen them or who has any information regarding their whereabouts to please contact 101.”
Glasgow has been a city crying out for solutions to a devastating drugs epidemic that is ravaging people hooked on deadly narcotics.
We have spent time with vulnerable addicts in recent months and witnessed first-hand the dirty, dangerous street corners and back alleys where they would inject their £10 heroin hit, not knowing – or, in many cases, not caring – whether that would be the moment they die.
“Dying would be better than this life,” one man told me.
It was a grim insight into the daily reality of life in the capital of Europe’s drug death crisis.
Scotland has a stubborn addiction to substances spanning generations. Politicians of all persuasions have failed to properly get a grip of the emergency.
But there is a new concept in town.
From Monday, a taxpayer-funded unit is allowing addicts to bring their own heroin and cocaine and inject it while NHS medical teams supervise.
A dirty needle thrown less than 100 metres from the new injection centre
It may be a UK-first but it is a regular feature in some other major European cities that have claimed high success rates in saving lives.
Glasgow has looked on with envy at these other models.
One supermarket car park less than a hundred metres from this new facility is a perfect illustration of the problem. An area littered with dirty needles and paraphernalia. A minefield where one wrong step risks contracting a nasty disease.
Drugs paraphernalia in a supermarket car park in Glasgow, near the new facility
It is estimated hundreds of users inject heroin in public places in Glasgow every week. HIV has been rife.
The new building, which will be open from 9am until 9pm 365 days a year, includes bays where clean needles are provided as part of a persuasive tactic to lure addicts indoors in a controlled environment.
There is a welcome area where people will check in before being invited into one of eight bays. The room is clinical, covered in mirrors, with a row of small medical bins.
Clean needles are provided to lure addicts to inject in a controlled environment
There are eight bays users can inject in
We were shown the aftercare area where users will relax after their hit in the company of housing and social workers.
The idea is controversial and not cheap – £2.3m has been ring-fenced every year.
The aftercare area
Read more: ‘Dying would be better than my £1,000 a month heroin addiction’
Authorities in the city first floated a ‘safer drug consumption room’ in 2016. It failed to get off the ground as the UK Home Office under the Conservatives said they would not allow people to break the law to feed habits.
The usual wrangle between Edinburgh and London continued for years with Downing Street suggesting Scotland could, if it wanted, use its discretion to allow these injecting rooms to go ahead.
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The stalemate ended when Scotland’s most senior prosecutor issued a landmark decision that it would not be in the public interest to arrest those using such a facility.
One expert has told me this new concept is unlikely to lead to an overall reduction in deaths across Scotland. Another described it as an expensive vanity project. Supporters clearly disagree.
The question is what does success look like?
The big test will be if there is a spike in crime around the building and how it will work alongside law enforcement given drug dealers know exactly where to find their clients now.
It is not disputed this is a radical approach – and other cities across Britain will be watching closely.
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