A TikTok star who flew out to Tenerife to help in the search for Jay Slater says he is returning home. Callum Fahim claims he has not seen any of the money raised from the GoFundMe page and plans to return to the UK after spending two weeks in Spain.
Callum Fahim flew to Tenerife after contacting Jay Slater’s mother, Debbie Duncan, online. As of Thursday evening (July 4), the GoFundMe page set up for Jay’s family sits at £49,507, rising well over the original target of £30,000.
Yesterday, Debbie took to the site to leave a message of gratitude to supporters and also explained how the money will be used to support the rescue teams and volunteers who are helping in the search for Jay.
READ MORE: Missing Jay Slater in Tenerife LIVE updates as mum issues new statement amid Rolex and Airbnb claims
However, Callum Fahim has told Sky News that he has not received any of the money. Fahim said: “I haven’t had anything from the GoFundMe. We have not had a bit of essentials paid for.
“I’ve never had any money from them whatsoever or even offers to go and pick anything up. If they had offered it, personally I would’ve said maybe a bit of a treat at the end of the week, but don’t worry about it.”
Mr Fahim, told Sky News that he paid to fly to Tenerife himself and after a ‘long conversation’ with Ms Duncan he is ‘withdrawing.’
He said: “It’s getting very out of control. The situation here is very dangerous at the moment.
“I have had death threats. I had a long conversation with her [Ms Duncan] and decided I’m withdrawing.”
Jay, 19, from Oswaldtwistle in Lancashire, disappeared on the Spanish island on June 17. He was last seen leaving an Airbnb in the north of the island, close to the village of Masca, at around 8am that morning.
The teenager, who was on holiday with his pals Lucy Law, 18, and Brad Hargreaves, 19, had previously been partying at the Papagayo nightclub in Playa de las Americas, before leaving the event with two British men to go back to the rented property. His last known location was the Rural de Teno Park in the north of the Canary Island – which was about an 11-hour walk back to his accommodation.
On Thursday, Debbie issued a new statement where she slammed trolls who have posted conspiracy theories about her son’s disappearance online. She said the family ‘were not in Tenerife for a holiday’ – read in full what she said here.
Earlier this week, TV investigator Mark Williams-Thomas, who has been out in Tenerife, said the teen had allegedly ‘taken a £12,000 Rolex’ before he went missing and was ‘scared’ when he left the Airbnb.
And the last man who saw Jay Slater alive has broken his silence with the British teenager missing for over two weeks. Today, one of the men who invited him back to the Airbnb, Ayub Qassim, said: “He came to my Airbnb alive and he left my Airbnb 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,” he added.
After almost two weeks of hunting for the teenager in vast and mountainous terrain, police called off the search on the ground for him early this week. On June 30, they said officers would continue to act on any tip-offs or other information that came in but the active work that has been ongoing since the apprentice bricklayer was reported missing would cease.
