The inquest has been adjourned into the death of Jay Slater, who went missing in Tenerife on June 17 last year

Jay Slater was found after a month-long search after going missing in Tenerife last year(Image: MEN)

The inquest into the death of Jay Slater has been unexpectedly adjourned after a desperate plea from his mum.

Senior coroner Dr James Adeley adjourned the inquest and revealed it could take “a couple of months” to resume.

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It comes after he had asked whether Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan would be satisfied if the statements of several witnesses who had failed to show up despite efforts from police to track them down were read instead of hearing evidence from them.

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Debbie issued a heartfelt plea telling the inquest her family had unanswered questions and needed to be able to ask questions of two men – Ayub Qassim and Steven Roccas – who Jay had stayed with at an Airbnb before his disappearance.

Following a short break Dr James Adeley announced the inquest would be adjourned.

He said: “The question in any inquest is that of how somebody comes by their death.

“The difficulty is in the interpretation. We could simply deal with Jay’s death by the fact that he has walked into the middle of nowhere and fallen off a cliff.”

Addressing Jay’s mother Debbie directly, he continued: “However, you wish to speak to the witnesses, who last saw him.

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“You have heard of the difficulties we have had trying to find these two witnesses.

“In view of your distress and your need for answers we will make an attempt to find them again using whatever means we can.

“I am not confident of success but I will do what I can.”

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The date for the restart of the inquest has not been confirmed.

Police have already been trying to track down Ayub Qassim and Steven Roccas, who were with Jay at the Airbnb he stayed at the night before trying to walk back to his own accommodation in the morning.

The coroner’s office has already gone to significant lengths to locate the two men, including asking the Metropolitan Police to serve witness summons on them.

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But they have yet to be tracked down. Jay’s mum Debbie had told the coroner: “I know you tried to locate them but how can we ever get any understanding?

“We know he died, we know he had an accident, but from him leaving that holiday resort to going up there…?

“We read the statements. There are things that we want to question. We want these people in front of us.

“My son went on holiday and didn’t come back so there are questions we need to ask. Please.”

Other witnesses had also failed to turn up including Jay’s friends who he flew to Tenerife with, Lucy Law and Brad Hargreaves.

Jay went missing on June 17 in on the Spanish island.