Kidnap model: I feared for my life every minute
BRIT MODEL TELLS OF KIDNAP ORDEAL BY DARK WEB GANG
A GLAMOUR model has spoken of her terrifying ordeal after being kidnapped to be sold as a sex slave.
Chloe Ayling, 20, was lured to a fake photoshoot in Milan before being drugged with the horse tranquilliser ketamine and bundled into a car boot.
She told Italian police: “When I woke up I was wearing a pink bodysuit and the socks I am wearing now.
“I was in a car boot with my wrists and ankles handcuffed, adhesive tape on my mouth. I was inside a bag and only able to breathe through a small hole.”
Chloe said she was driven 120 miles to a remote farmhouse where she was handcuffed to a chest of drawers and slept on the floor for a week.
Her gangland kidnappers – called the Black Death Group – posted naked photos of Chloe on the dark web, offering her for sale at £230,000. Police said she was only released when her kidnappers discovered she was a mother with a young son – a breach of the gang’s rules.
Yesterday, more than two weeks after she was freed, Chloe was reunited with her mum and pet beagle dog Nylah.
Speaking outside her three-bedroom terraced family home in Coulsdon, South London, Chloe said: “I’ve been through a terrifying experience. I’ve feared for my life, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour.
“I’m incredibly grateful to the Italian and UK authorities for all they have done to secure my safe release.
“I have just arrived home after four weeks and haven’t had time to collect my thoughts. I’m not at liberty to say anything further until I have been debriefed by the UK police.”
Speaking to the Mirror, Chloe said: “My mum is really happy that I’m back.”
Police have arrested Lukasz Pawel Herba, 30, a Polish immigrant from the West Midlands, and launched a manhunt for his suspected accomplices.
Chloe had excitedly told her 157,000 Instagram followers about the Italian trip before it became a nightmare.
She had reportedly been in Paris before receiving the offer to model in Italian fashion capital Milan on July 11 when she was snatched. In an account of her ordeal, as told to Italian investigators, she revealed her captors said she would be a sex slave to wealthy Arabs who would eventually “feed her to the tigers”.
Local media reported that Chloe said: “When I entered the studio I had my iPhone and wallet in one hand and my wheelie suitcase in the other.
“The door to the studio from the adjoining room was closed and before I could go in, someone put their hand on my neck and the other hand on my mouth which stopped me from screaming. He wore black gloves. A second person wearing a black balaclava gave me an injection in my right forearm. I think I lost consciousness.”
The model’s dark web “advert” featured a disturbing image of her dressed in a velvet body suit, looking dazed and lying on the floor with her left breast exposed. Her captors had even placed a calling card on her stomach.
The ad by Black Death Group – which refers to victims as “merchandise” and boasts it can “kidnap a specific target” – features a series of horrifying promises about the women they traffic.
Chloe was being kept at a cottage in the isolated hamlet of Borgial near Turin.
Artilio Garbano, the only permanent resident, said: “The owner of the house usually rents it out to families but this time he rented it to an English artist who
I’ve feared for my life second by second and minute by minute CHLOE AYLING TELLS OF HER KIDNAP YESTERDAY
needed peace and quiet. I didn’t see any girl – we don’t get many page three girls round here so I’d have noticed. But here it’s very dark. If he wanted to unload someone he could wait till my light went off.” Police said suspected kidnapper Herba became terrified of angering bosses when he realised she was a mum. Police said he demanded a £230,000 ransom from Chloe’s modelling agency – the same as her auction price. When the agency notified authorities, Herba allegedly wanted £50,000 from police. He was arrested as he took Chloe to the British Consulate in Milan. Police said he had confessed to the kidnap. Lorenzo Bucossi, of Milan Flying Squad, said: “She has not suffered any kind of violence. She says she was not sexually assaulted or raped. The author of this very serious crime is a dangerous person, he was also ready to carry out a ‘final solution’, as he called it.”
Chloe was released on July 17. West Midlands Police, working with Italian authorities, raided Herba’s flat in Oldbury just hours later. Despite her ordeal, she had to stay in Italy for more than two weeks to answer questions from a judge and assist detectives. Herba eventually appeared in court on Friday.
A relative of Chloe said: “The story goes beyond Chloe and has to do with people trafficking and the dark web. The good news is she’s home now and we’re going to shower her in hugs and kisses.”