To be fair though, I'd also read that the victim of the machete attack himself had told internet trolls to shut up with their comments and speculation and said that everyone should just hope the lad gets found and home. Judging by his sentence Slater may have been part of the group of 8 but was likely not heavily involved in the attack himself.

I'm sure that we don't know all the facts/circumstances but agree that something certainly seems "off" about the whole thing. Anything more than that is just speculation. We don't know if his involvement in the prior attack was him falling in with the wrong crowd in the past or whether he still has gang/drug connections and really is a little scrote or whether any of this has any bearing whatsoever on his disappearance but he is still only 19 so hope he is found and found alive soon.