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Jay Slater’s dad says police keeping family in dark – as they share new CCTV image in hope of finding teen

Jay Slater's dad says police keeping family in dark - as they share new CCTV image in hope of finding teen

Jay Slater’s father has said police have left him and his family in the dark over the search for the missing British teenager – as they shared what they hope is an image of him.

Warren Slater, the 19-year-old’s dad, said that while some officers on Tenerife had been “brilliant”, he had been left frustrated at the lack of communication from others.

Speaking to reporters, he said: “Nobody’s told us. The mountain police [have been] brilliant… but I don’t know how the other police [force] works.

“They could be doing everything but if they are doing [something], they’re not telling us what they’re doing, if you understand what I’m saying.”

Image:
A CCTV image that could be of missing teen Jay Slater

Jay Slater, from Oswaldtwistle near Blackburn in Lancashire, has been missing on the Spanish island since the morning of Monday 17 June.

He had been on a holiday with friends and was last heard from just around 8.30am that day, when he called his friend Lucy Law to say he was setting off to walk back to his accommodation after missing a bus.

The walk from Mr Slater’s last known location, Rural de Teno Park, around the mountainous village of Masca, in the north of the island, to his accommodation would have taken about 11 hours on foot.

It comes as his family shared a blurry image of what they believe could be the missing teenager captured on CCTV in a nearby town 10 hours after he was first reported missing.

Read more:
What we know about the search – one week on
Focus grows on ‘highly unusual details’ in Jay Slater search
Picture being painted of Jay Slater ‘is just not true’

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Sky News has not been able to verify the source of the picture.

The sighting has not been confirmed by Spanish police but the family are pinning their hopes that it may help bring their son home.

Mr Slater’s family have flown to the island to try and retrace his steps as a GoFundMe appeal to raise money for the search surpassed £30,000 over the weekend.

The apprentice bricklayer had gone to the NRG festival in south Tenerife with friends on the Sunday afternoon.

An appeal poster for Jay Slater. Pic: PA
Image:
An appeal poster for Jay Slater. Pic: PA

Following that, he went to Masca with two people he had met at the festival.

Around 8am last Monday, Mr Slater spoke to Ofelia Medina Hernandez and she told him a bus was due at 10am – as he seemingly hoped to get back to his accommodation.

But he set off walking – she said she later drove past him as he was “walking fast”.

Not long after, he called his friend Ms Law and said he was lost and trying to walk from Masca to his accommodation in Los Cristianos in the south of the island.

Shortly after 9am that morning he was reported missing.

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Jay Slater: What is happening with search?

Helicopters, rescue dogs and drones have spent days scouring overgrown terrain, hillsides and rivers as the search continues.

Mr Slater’s family have set up a Facebook group to help review images and footage in an effort to find him.

The Spanish Civil Guard previously told UK media it was “doing everything possible” to find Mr Slater.

“A specialist mountain rescue and intervention group called the Greim have been mobilised.”

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Warren Slater, speaking previously to Sky News, said he is “just hoping that somebody has helped him off this mountain”.

He added: “That’s all I want, that somebody has helped him get off this mountain. I just want him back and that’s it. He’s my son.”

His voice cracking, Mr Slater said the last few days have been “a nightmare, just a nightmare”.