TheGoFundMe set up to find Jay Slater has now raised over £50,000. His family are adamant that they will remain in Tenerife to continue the search for the missing teenager. It comes after police on the Spanish island called off the land hunt on 30 June following 12 days of looking for the 19-year-old Briton. He was last heard from on 17 June after setting off to walk back to his accommodation - a journey of about 11 hours.

In a statement on the crowdfunding page set up to help find Mr Slater, his mother shared an update on how the funds would be used. Debbie Duncan wrote that although the police land search, which "involved every resource they had available", had ended, the officers will "continue with their investigations into why Jay had travelled to the location so far away from his accommodation.”

The latest update comes after Jay Slater’s friend has condemned online conspiracy theories accusing them of being “drug mules.” Brad Hargreaves, who was on holiday with Jay at the time he went missing, responded to online trolls on his social media page. “Thinkin I’m involved in it all is beyond me,” he wrote on his Instagram story. “We’ve been mates for years, came on our first holiday together and unfortunately this has happened. We ain’t drug mules or whatever.... people need to know the facts before talking sh** on the internet...”

Jay’s other friend Lucy Law was the last person to speak to Jay when he called her at around 8:50am to tell her he was lost, needed a drink of water and his phone was on one per cent battery. They had attended the NRG music festival on the Canary Island on Sunday June 16, before Jay went back to an AirBnb around an hour drive from where he was staying with two men he had met.

Some social commenters have condemned some mainstream outlets for not reporting about Slater’s prior conviction for GBH. In 2021, Jay Slater was a part of a gang who carried out an machete attack on another teen. Jay, who was 16 at the time of the incident ,was said by witnesses to be “on the periphery” of the attack. Although the defendants were cleared of a more serious charge of wounding with intent to commit GBH, all were found guilty of violent disorder.