Jay Slater’s family anguish at ‘so-called experts’ who hindered search – latest

LBT Global, which has been helping the family of Jay Slater, says it is looking at bringing Jay Slater’s body back to Lancashire.

Chief executive Matthew Searle said he was dealing with “massive paperwork, translations and logistics” in an interview with Sky News.

It’s more than four weeks since the 19-year-old left his home to go on holiday with friends on the Spanish island.

Sky News focused in on some of the theories that circulated during the disappearance of Jay Slater, asking charity LBT Global, which supported the family, how they had impacted the search.

Matthew Searle, the charity’s chief executive, said it took teams a “huge amount of time” to eliminate the ideas flown about that were untrue.

Hundreds of emails were also sent to his charity from people who claimed they knew how Jay was – each one of them had to be followed up, Mr Searle said.

Mr Searle said: “Ultimately it hinders the search and it’s terrifyingly horrible for a family that are going through this.”

As reported, charity LBT Global has been helping the family of Jay Slater.

It produced a statement on behalf of Jay’s mother after he was found, and now chief executive Matthew Searle has been speaking on the teenager’s mother, Debbie Duncan’s, behalf.

When interviewed by The Independent, Mr Searle said frenzies speculation and online trolling had made it “incredibly difficult” for the family.

He said: “She’s [Debbie Duncan] found it incredibly difficult dealing with this whole situation, but with the additional stress and trauma put on her by the amount of obscene trolling, armchair detectives, so-called experts and specialists – it’s been really hard on her and the family.”

Mr Searle plans to speak to the Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on the issue

The spiralling of theories spouted out by people on Facebook groups hindered the search for Jay Salter, claims the boss of the charity which helped his family.

The case attracted huge worldwide attention, after the 19-year-old went missing while on holiday in the island.

But while people thought they might be helping the search teams’ efforts on the ground, Matthew Searle, chief executive of LBT Global, said they were, in fact, hindering them.

He’s also spoken of his concern over the vile comments spread about the teenager, which he said caused pain for the family.

He now plans to talk to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper on how to tackle the issue.

Jay Slater’s family have taken “very small comfort” in their belief that he died instantly after falling from a significant height, a charity chief who has been speaking with his mother has said.

Matthew Searle, chief executive of LBT Global, told The Independent he had been speaking with Debbie Duncan, 55, at length after Spanish authorities concluded her son’s injuries were consistent with an accidental fall.

Mr Searle, whose charity has been supporting Mr Slater’s family during this ordeal, said they had looked closely at the area where the rescue teams were searching when they found the 19-year-old’s body.

“Chances are if he did fall from a height where we saw the recovery teams then it’s very unlikely he would have known much about it,” said the charity CEO. “That takes away the horrible nightmare idea that he fell and was waiting for help that never came. It’s very small comfort, but it is some.”

Tenerife’s civil guard insists it had continued its search discreetly, despite having publicly called off the search over two weeks ago.

After 13 days of searching, the Spanish authorities called off the search on June 30, but said they were continuing their investigation.

However upon recovering Jay Slater’s body on Monday, they revealed they had indeed continued an “incessant and discreet” search in which the “natural space was preserved so that it would not be filled with curious onlookers”.

Jay Slater’s phone was last located near a stretch of road by the Mirador La Cruz de Hilda, a cafe near the village of Masca with cacti and dense shrubbery on either side, which had made it slow work for helicopters, drones and sniffer dogs to comb through the area.

The body discovered on Monday morning was found by Civil Guard mountain rescue specialists in a “very inaccessible” area, officials said.

Here is a timeline of the key events prior to Jay Slater’s disappearance and leading up to the discovery of his body: