Jay Slater’s mother has slammed TV sleuth Mark Williams-Thomas for seeking publicity over her son’s death – and told him to ‘reveal what he knows’ after claiming he knows the ‘real reason’ why the teenager left a Tenerife Airbnb.
Apprentice bricklayer Jay, 19, was last seen alive leaving the white washed house at around 7.30am on June 17 after heading there with convicted drug dealer Ayub Qassim, 31, and another man following an all-night rave.
Within days former detective Williams-Thomas flew to the Spanish island and at the time said he would get answers ‘within 72 hours’ and he spoke to several witnesses as well as Jay’s mother Debbie Duncan.
Tragically, a month later Jay’s body was found and the TV sleuth – who exposed Jimmy Savile – says he now knows why the youngster left the remote Airbnb in the remote village of Masca but he has refused to go into details.
As the mystery surrounding the teen’s disappearance grew, ‘vile’ and ‘distressing’ conspiracy theories began to emerge that dogged efforts to find the missing apprentice bricklayer from Oswaldtwistle.
Among the vicious rumours circulating included wild claims Jay had been targeted by a criminal cartel on the island for allegedly stealing a watch from a gang member – something his family vehemently denied happened. Â
Now, Jay’s grief-stricken mother, Debbie Duncan, says the ruthless trolling of her online has started again after the TV detective’s latest intervention.
Speaking exclusively to MailOnline, school finance officer Debbie, 55, said: ‘If he knows something I wish he would say it, otherwise people will think it’s just publicity and it’s not doing me any good.
Jay Slater pictured before he went missing in Tenerife, seen with his mother Debbie Duncan
Mark Williams-Thomas, a former police officer turned TV sleuth, claimed in a video he knows the real reason why tragic British teenager Jay Slater left an Airbnb before his death
Jay, from Oswaldtwistle, disappeared while on a three-day holiday for a music festival
Jay vanished after attempting to walk back to his lodging after missing a bus from this Airbnb
Spanish police have previously searched the Airbnb (pictured) where Jay was seen
Jay went to the remote cottage – called Casa Abuela Tina, meaning Grandma Tina’s house – at 5am on June 17, the day he vanished
Jay posted this Snapchat of himself standing on the steps of the Airbnb villa
‘I’m still in bits here, I’m having counselling, and it doesn’t get any easier, I couldn’t sleep at all last night because after he posted what he did it on his social media just kicked off all the trolls again.
‘Losing Jay was hard enough but then having to read what some people are writing is torture, I’m not good really and I would be lying if I said I was alright, the last few hours have just been awful.
‘What he said has knocked me back a million steps, I just wish he would say what he knows or just stay out of it, we last spoke a few weeks ago briefly because I wanted to clear some things up.
‘It was nothing untoward, I just wanted to refresh my brain because I couldn’t remember much from the first couple of weeks as you saw what I was like, I had just lost the plot, my son was missing, and I wanted to find him.’
Debbie added: ‘There was nothing really new, I just wanted to go over some things and he said if I remembered anything to give me a call and that was it, now it’s all over the news again and it’s really knocked me.
‘I thought for a second he might have something but now I’m thinking it might just be a PR stunt as all it’s done is that it’s got all the bloody Tick Tockers back and they have never really stopped which is even sadder.
‘I try to avoid it but then I think I will have a little look and it knocks me back because they just go over the same stuff but I’m not biting on what he’s saying, I don’t know why he’s said what he did.
‘I didn’t sleep last night and I’m going through enough as it is. He’s put this on his socials but he hasn’t backed it up, if he knows anything then he should say.
Mr Williams-Thomas flew out to Tenerife to meet with the missing 19-year-old’s family after he vanished in June and promised to get ‘answers’
 Jay’s family and many others laid the 19-year-old to rest at his funeral on August 10, and asked he be allowed to rest in peace without conspiracies spiralling about his deathÂ
The order of service for Jay’s funeral featured a picture of the teenager smiling
Jay’s body was brought to Accrington Crematorium Chapel by horse-drawn carriage
People put blue ribbons up all around the church in memory of the teenager
‘There’s a lot of people saying “what’s he got?” or “what’s he found?” so that’s why I’m saying if he has anything he should.’
‘There is only one person who really knows what happened and he’s not here to tell us what happened, that’s why everything is just speculation.
‘I still think speaking to his friends at the time, Jay just wanted to carry on partying and he left but like I say there’s only one person who knows, although I’d like to know more from the guy who was at the Airbnb.’
When asked how she was coping, Debbie said: ‘I’m not, it’s all so raw still, I’m not back at work, I’m struggling and I’m having counselling still.’
In his update Williams-Thomas said there ‘had been a huge amount of misinformation’ surrounding the case admitting some of the information he was told ‘in the early days wasn’t accurate, wasn’t correct’.
In a video on social media, he said: ‘There’s a huge amount of misinformation. When I went out there, I took a lot of videos.
‘Some of the information which came to me in the early days wasn’t accurate, wasn’t correct and I needed to validate it.’
He went on to say he’d had a ‘long conversation’ with Jay’s mother Debbie and they get on ‘very well’.
The 19-year-old went missing on June 17
Jay’s mother Debbie and father Warren in Tenerife while they were hunting for their son
Jay’s father Warren and brother Zack turn up at Masca to view and help with the search and rescue of Jay
Flowers and messages left by the family of Jay by roadside near the spot he was found
‘This is a mother who lost her child. This case hit headlines worldwide and took on a life of its own. People became fascinated and as a result of that there were lots of conspiracy theories.
‘I was very clear from Day One this looked like a tragic accident. There were considerable issues – I haven’t revealed the details of these issues – exactly why Jay left in the manner he did. Why didn’t he return?
‘These things I’ve kept to myself at this moment in time. Maybe, when the time is right, I will reveal those.
‘I’ve got to be very careful. What I don’t want to do is upset the family with any more trauma than they have already had and so it would be something I would work very closely with Debbie and the family on to reveal that information.
‘Maybe the time will be right soon, but not right now.’
In another video, he said: ‘The evidence still strongly suggests that Jay left the Airbnb suddenly and walked for 30 minutes before wandering off road.
‘At this stage, I cannot explain any further what we now know.’
His body was found after a month-long search just a few metres from his last known location
A dog in the search team which searched for Jay Slater in June
MailOnline was the first to track down Qassim – who was jailed for nine years in 2015 for drug dealing – and spoke with him briefly at his east London flat where he insisted Jay had ‘come to the house alive and left alive’.
The £40 a night Airbnb is around 45 minutes drive from the party resort of Los Cristianos where Jay was staying with pals, having arrived a few days earlier for a music festival on what was his first foreign holiday.
Qassim told MailOnline at the time: ‘I let the geezer stay at mine because he had nowhere else to go, his friends had 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.’
On his Instagram Qassim posted recently a video of Jose Mourinho at Chelsea saying after his infamous 1-0 defeat against Aston Villa: ‘If I speak, I am in big trouble and I don’t want to be in big trouble.’
