Teen died in ravine fall after ‘drinking and taking drugs’

British teenager Jay Slater died after he fell more than 50ft down a ravine while attempting to walk back to his holiday villa in Tenerife, an inquest heard yesterday.

- TOM WATLING

Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was visiting the Spanish island and had been to the NRG music festival in the resort of Playa de las Americas on 16 June last year when he went missing.

After the event, he went with two men to an Airbnb in Masca, a village in the mountains miles from his holiday apartment in Los Cristianos, before deciding that he wanted to go home the next morning.

The 19-year-old had spoken to friends by phone and told them he was “in the middle of the mountains” and in need of a drink, as he attempted a 14-hour walk home after taking drugs and alcohol, Preston Coroner’s Court heard.

The teenager made contact with his friends several times on his phone before it ran out of battery, but failed to identify where he was in the mountains.

When Slater failed to return to Los Cristianos, the authorities began to search the mountains for him.