The Jay Slater saga just gets dodgier and dodgier after Maddie McCann investigator Mark Williams-Thomas confirmed this week that the missing teenager had stolen a Rolex on the night he went missing (at least, according to Jay’s pals), and had potentially been ‘spooked’ at the Airbnb he was staying at with two older British men, prompting him to begin the 11-hour trek, during which he vanished.

One of these British men, Ayub Qassim, has now insisted that he had nothing to do with Jay Slater’s disappearance. Bit of background on Qassim – he was jailed in 2015 for being the ringleader of a London-based gang that was importing heroin and crack cocaine to Cardiff, Wales. He was sentenced to 9 years and 9 months (though clearly didn’t serve his full sentence).

Qassim told MailOnline:

‘The only comment I have to make is that Jay came to the house alive, and he left the house alive.

‘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 insists he had had no argument with Jay and he had even given him a blanket to sleep in. He added:

‘If I’d fallen out with him would he even come to mine?

‘There were no problems. You’ve seen the last images of him with his red blanket around him.

‘I don’t know if he had beef elsewhere because I don’t know him that well, I only know him through friends.’

Asked how well he knew Jay Slater and what he thought of the conspiracy theories around his disappearance, Qassim said:

‘Everyone knows each other. I’m not going to slander anyone.

‘He’s a cool guy, Jay. He ain’t got a problem with me, I haven’t got a problem with him or his mates. We just all talk to each other and everything was sweet.’

In fairness to Qassim, Spanish police questioned both him and his unnamed British travel buddy (a guy known only as ‘Johnny Vegas’) and ruled them out of the investigation. Interestingly, the Maddie McCann detective said he wanted to speak to Qassim and his buddy when he was out in Tenerife, but Qassim says a conversation never occurred:

‘I’ve spoken to the Spanish police and they’ve told me not to speak to anyone which is why I’ve been quiet.

‘I’ve not spoken to Mark Williams-Thomas or anyone like him because he doesn’t have any jurisdiction in Tenerife, and I haven’t done anything wrong.’

Jay went back to Qassim’s remote cottage Airbnb – called Casa Abuela Tina – at 5am on the day he vanished on June 17. He left the property at around 7.30am to catch a bus back towards his holiday apartment. After realising there was no bus, he began the 11-hour walk, and after 30 minutes had called three separate friends to tell them he was lost and had low battery. Since then – there’s been no trace of him.

With all these new characters and new information coming to light two weeks after Jay Slater’s disappearance, it makes you wonder how much else about the case we don’t know. What we do know is that with each passing day, the chances of Jay Slater turning up alive and well become increasingly slim. Here’s hoping for a breakthrough soon.

For the most recent update from Jay Slater’s mum as to where the GoFundMe cash is now being allocated after Spanish police called off the search, click HERE. Interesting…