Friend begged missing Jay to get back – inquest

TEENAGER Jay Slater, who went missing in Tenerife last summer, was begged by a friend to get back to safety after he ventured off a mountain road down a dangerous ravine, an inquest heard.

- KIM PILLING

The 19-year-old had told his friends he was “in the middle of the mountains” and in need of a drink, as he attempted a 14-hour walk home the morning after taking drugs and alcohol on a night out, Preston Coroner's Court was told.

Mr Slater, from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, was holidaying on the Spanish island and had been to the NRG music festival with friends at the Papagayo nightclub in the resort of Playa de las Americas on June 16 last year.

But he vanished the next morning after going with two men to an Airbnb in a village in the mountains miles from his holiday apartment.

A huge search was launched after he was reported missing on June 18, and his body was found by a mountain rescue team almost a month later in a steep and inaccessible area, near the village of Masca on July 15.

An inquest into his death resumed yesterday after it was adjourned in May so witnesses could be traced.

Friend Bradley Geoghegan said Mr Slater had taken ecstasy pills, and possibly ketamine, along with cocaine and alcohol, on the night out before he disappeared.