Identity of Jay Slater mystery man ‘Johnny Vegas’ REVEALED by ex-Maddie investigator as mystery over final night deepens
THE identity of ‘Jonny Vegas’, one of the mystery men who last saw missing Brit teen Jay Slater, has been revealed.
Initial reports suggested convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim and Jonny Vegas were the two new pals Jay made before he vanished – but they now appear to be one and the same.
It comes after The Sun revealed Ayub, 31, rented a £40-a-night holiday let under a different surname with an unnamed friend.
Jay, 19, went to the Airbnb – called Case Abuela Tina – in northwest Tenerife at around 5am on June 17, just hours before he vanished.
Former detective Mark Williams-Thomas shared a video on X today, claiming Qassim told him that the nickname ‘Jonny Vegas’ is his.
The ex-cop – who worked on the Madeleine McCann case – tracked down Qassim and quizzed him on the mystery of Jay’s disappearance.
Mark claimed: “In the last 24 hours I have spoken in detail with Ayub Qassim, who is also known as Jonny Vegas.”
“He told me he was on the (Veronicas) Strip in Playa de las Americas and said that Jay wanted to carry on partying and that he hadn’t anywhere to stay, so he (Qassim) invited him back to his rental.
“In the car they played music all the way, they stopped once to get a can of fizzy drink, and there was three of them in the car, Jay in the back and Qassim’s friend in the front.”
Mark also claims his efforts have “opened up an established criminal network with links to drugs , violent crime and thefts”.
Qassim’s unnamed friend had so far only been referred to as Jonny Vegas.
If the nickname – based on a famous comedian who starred in Benidorm – does indeed belong to Qassim, the identity of the second man is still unknown.
He remains a key piece of the puzzle in the bizarre mystery of Jay’s disappearance.
Qassim, who The Sun revealed was jailed for nine years in 2015, previously insisted: “Jay came to the house alive, and he left the house alive.”
He said: “I let the geezer stay at mine because he had nowhere else to go.
“His friends had all left him.
“I know Jay, through friends, I’m not going to bring someone back to mine if I don’t know them.
“I’m doing the geezer a favour and now my face is all over the news. It’s a bit mental. I haven’t even done anything.”
Qassim, who booked the Airbnb under the surname Abdul, and his friend spoke to Spanish police after Jay vanished.
Officials deemed them “irrelevant” to the ongoing investigation and let them fly home to the UK the very next day.
Jay’s dad Warren, 58, questioned why his teenage son ended up at a remote Airbnb with “two grown men”.
Qassim confirmed he had spoken to the Spanish authorities in Tenerife but says he was told by foreign cops not to speak to anyone else.
This week he insisted he has “nothing to hide” and slammed Facebook detectives for screenshotting his Instagram.
The Sun previously revealed his connection to a legal cannabis cafe in Tenerife owned by his childhood friend, acclaimed drill rapper Potter Payper.
LUCY LAW & JONNY VEGAS
Jay’s friend Lucy, the last person to speak to him before he vanished, tracked down the Airbnb where Jonny Vegas was staying and one of Jay’s last known locations.
She said: “We managed to find the house. I knocked on the door and there were two people there.”
The mystery pair told Lucy that Jay had gone out to buy cigarettes before returning to their apartment.
Once he got back he told them he wanted to go home to his accommodation.
Lucy said: “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.”
Lucy has described his disappearance as “weird and suspicious”, adding “there’s something weird going on.”
Jay 'left Airbnb feeling scared'
By Katie Davis
JAY Slater left the Airbnb he went to with two men feeling “scared” after admitting to stealing a £12,000 Rolex, an investigator claims.
Former detective Mark Williams-Thomas said the 19-year-old did not want to return to the remote holiday let in northwest Tenerife despite having little phone battery.
Apprentice bricklayer Jay, who had been at a rave all night in Playa de las Americas, travelled north to the Airbnb in Masca village in the early hours of June 17.
During the hour-long drive, Mark claims Jay posted a Snapchat saying he had taken a Rolex worth £12,000 from an unknown person.
Police had been examining security cameras at a beach club and speaking to witnesses about an alleged Rolex theft hours before Jay vanished.
It was reported a brawl broke out at the Papagayo Beach Club in the early hours of June 17 after a “burly” Eastern European man allegedly had his pricey watch stolen.
Mark said he and his team had been “unable to validate” Jay’s claim on Snapchat “in terms of reported theft”.
He added: “However friends of Jay said he would not make this up and the watch was subject of later conversation between the friends.”
According to Mark, the host of the Airbnb told Jay at around 8am there would be a bus two hours later.
Jay then tried to make his way back to his holiday accommodation, faced with an 11-hour walk.
Mark – who worked on the Madeleine McCann case – said Jay talked to at least three friends via message and the phone while trekking back, telling them he was lost.
At around 8.50am he made a final frantic call to friend Lucy, saying he was in the “middle of nowhere” with no water and had just one per cent battery on his phone.
Mark said in a video update today: “He was told to go back by two people to the rental.
“He said he could not do that and that he’d already been walking for 30 minutes and that he was now off road and was walking on a track where there were loose stones.”
Mark has claimed Jay fled the holiday let and was “scared”.
He said: “We have received information that would suggest that Jay left the rental property feeling scared and he would not return to the rental, even though that would have been the most sensible course of action, and also where he could have charged his phone, got some water and made contact with friends.
“We continue to investigate this aspect.”