Jay Slater’s last known companion marries woman convicted in £13million cannabis smuggling plot

The last man to see tragic teenager Jay Slater alive has married a glamorous woman who faces prison over a £13million cannabis smuggling operation.

Ayub Qassim invited party-loving Jay, 19, back to his rented holiday cottage in Tenerife after a rave before he vanished, sparking a month-long hunt for the apprentice bricklayer which gripped the nation two years ago.

Now it has emerged Qassim, 33, who himself served nine years in prison for drug offences, is in a relationship with Paige Crisp, a single mother who was convicted last week following a major drugs trial.

Qassim, of Somali heritage, married Crisp, 24, in a traditional Islamic wedding believed to have been held last year in Thailand – the same country Crisp’s gang smuggled drugs from.

Qassim uses the nickname QuackQuack – with Crisp now styling herself as ’Mrs QuackQuack’ on Instagram.

Last week, Crisp was convicted of helping to smuggle £13million worth of cannabis in 22 suitcases along with ten other Britons.

The gang were stopped by Border Force at Birmingham Airport with a massive 460kg haul of drugs in their luggage. They had paid extra baggage charges to smuggle the 22 suitcases into the UK from Thailand.

Crisp, a cleaner from Malvern, Worcestershire, and mother of a four-year-old child, was convicted of attempting to carry, remove, deposit, harbour, keep, conceal and deal with Class B drugs with intent to evade prohibition on importing.

Birmingham Crown Court heard the gang travelled from Thailand to the UK via Charles De Gaulle Airport in France.

Suspicions were raised when four of the smugglers arrived at Birmingham Airport from Paris with the large suitcases.

The bags contained a thin layer of clothing on top of vacuum-packed cannabis.

They also had eight Apple AirTag trackers – all connected to the same Apple ID account.

Qassim, from east London, was jailed 11 years ago for masterminding a sophisticated operation to flood Wales with Class A drugs.

Qassim was the ringleader of a London-based crime gang who imported heroin and crack cocaine to Cardiff.

When police raided a property in Cardiff, they found drugs, cash, mobile phones and digital scales. Qassim was sentenced in 2015 to nine years and nine months.

In a series of recent loved-up photos posted on social media, Crisp can be seen cavorting with Qassim.

In one, he posts: ’I never knew how powerful love was until it came to me, in the form of you’ with a heart emoji.

In another, Crisp appears to be dressed for a wedding, with henna tattoos on the back of her hands.

In a clip on YouTube, she can be seen in the same garb, while Qassim is wearing a traditional white robe.

Shots accompanying the wedding video, posted on YouTube to the backing track of Constellations by Jade LeMac, appear to have been filmed in Medina, Saudi Arabia.

Qassim’s own Instagram and TikTok accounts show him travelling across the world to Thailand and Somalia, including in one shot, riding a white horse on the beach.

Qassim hit the headlines shortly after holidaying bricklayer Jay from Oswaldtwistle, Lancashire, went missing in June 2024.

As the story dominated headlines in the UK, Qassim eventually broke his silence to tell the Daily Mail: ’He came to my Airbnb alive and he left my Airbnb alive.’

He later told an inquest in Preston in July last year that he invited Jay back to his rented holiday cottage after a rave in Tenerife hours before he vanished on June 17.

Qassim, said he and a friend, Steven Roccas, met Slater and his friends out in Tenerife.

He said Slater asked if he could come back to his and Roccas’ apartment.

Qassim, giving evidence via videolink, told the hearing: ’I did say, "Bro, oh mate, it’s so far away from the strip.

"There’s nothing happening there other than scenery". I said I would drop him off in the morning. He rolled with us.’

The coroner asked the witness about messages Slater had sent about a watch possibly being stolen.

The inquest was shown a Snapchat video featuring a short clip of a car dashboard with a caption referring to taking a ’12k rolly’ and being off to ’get ten quid for it’.

He added: ’Jay did not steal no watch. I can say 100 per cent.’

Asked to explain the social media post by Slater, the witness said: ’He could be boasting to his friends. He’s on a buzz, so maybe it could be that. Sometimes people do exaggerate.’

The coroner said: ’But so far as you are concerned, none of that is true?’

Qassim said: ’No. One hundred per cent. I didn’t see a watch. At this point he’s just firing off messages.’

He said when they got to his Airbnb he gave Slater a blanket and pillow and told him he could sleep on the sofa before going off to his own bed.

Qassim said he was woken a short time later by a couple pressing the buzzer because they wanted him to move his car.

When he left his car Slater came towards him and said he was leaving and to ’catch a bus’ to go back to his apartment, Qassim told the court.

He said he told Slater there were no buses and warned him against it.

Qassim said he told Slater to wait and he would drive him back later but he replied his friends were waiting for him.

Qassim said he went back to sleep, presuming Slater was waiting at the bus stop.

The coroner asked him if there was any altercation between them to which Qassim replied: ’No.’

Senior Coroner Dr James Adeley ruled that Slater died an accidental death from instant head injuries and severe trauma after falling 20 to 25m down a steep ravine in Tenerife’s Rural de Teno national park.

Crisp’s mother, who lives in Upton-upon-Severn, refused to discuss her daughter’s wedding, replying: ’Why is that a story? It’s nobody’s business.’

She then added: ’The whole thing is very upsetting…What they are doing is wrong.’

But she declined to clarify who she was referring to.

A former neighbour of Crisp in Malvern recalled her with little affection.

He said: ’She was a horrible, horrible woman, really vile. She went abroad - to Thailand I think. We were very relieved when someone else moved in.’

Another former neighbour said: ’We understand she went to Thailand and got married to this Somalian man. Good riddance.’