Woman threw bottles for help
She signs with celeb agency after ordeal
KIDNAPPED mum Chloe Ayling has ditched glamour modelling and signed up to a top international celebrity agency.
The 20-year-old joined Kruger Cowne, who represent talent including supermodel Elle Macpherson, singer Cher and South African peacemaker Desmond Tutu.
Her former representative Phil Green of SuperModel agency, who was contacted by Chloe’s kidnappers for a ransom, said: “The celebrity agent is basically saying, ‘I will look after all her affairs’ and she will not do modelling any more.
“We had a photoshoot booked for today which we had to cancel.
“The clients are not very happy. It’s very, very frustrating after all we’ve been through.”
It came as witnesses claimed Chloe “joked” with her suspected kidnapper Lukasz Herba in a Milan cafe before she was handed in at the British consulate.
An employee said: “I noticed them … as they stayed so long, about two hours. They were laughing and joking among themselves.”
Chloe, of Coulsdon, London, was said to have been lured to Italy, drugged and told she would be auctioned as a sex slave on the dark web.
She told police she and Herba, 30, had “a trusting relationship” by the time they ate at the cafe, waiting for the consulate to open.
They were also seen visiting a shoe shop and a supermarket in Viu, near Turin, near the apartment where she was held for seven days.
Chloe told officers she met Herba at a shoot in Paris a few months earlier. He later booked her for the fake shoot in Milan, where she was snatched.
Police sources in Italy described Chloe as a “credible witness”. Lawyer Francesco Pesce added she was terrified of a gang Herba claimed to be part of.
He said: “She thought the best idea was to go along with it and be nice in a way to her captor as he told her he wanted to release her somehow and sometime.
“I’ve heard people implying she was somewhat involved in this because it was too easy an escape. I cannot believe people think that. She was subject to a tremendous ordeal.”
Reports say Herba claimed he wanted to raise money to treat his leukaemia and that he was hired by a group of Romanians to rent properties around Europe to store garments they were selling.
He is also said to have told investigators that he posed as a photographer and met Chloe. He said he was paid £500,000, found out the Romanians intended to kidnap her, and backed out of the plan.
Kruger Cowne said: “Chloe is remarkably fortunate not to be one of the countless unlucky young women who are allegedly auctioned on a weekly basis.
“She is determined to raise awareness and shine a light on this terrible crime.
“Today, Chloe has requested Kruger Cowne’s support and advice following this horrendous time.” A WOMAN was forced to throw messages in bottles from a high-rise window after her boyfriend abducted and brutally attacked her. John Lawson violently assaulted Klaudia Budzinska after she tried to walk out of his flat in Dundee’s Lansdowne Court. He dragged her back in and kept her there against her will by locking her in the flat. Brutal Lawson then pinned Klaudia down and choked her so viciously that she couldn’t breathe or speak. The violent thug then fell asleep, leaving terrified Klaudia locked in during the ordeal on April 29. She first tried to hang a knotted bed sheet out of a window in a bid to climb down, but dropped it five floors to the ground when she realised how far she would fall. She then wrote a note and put it in a bottle and threw it at a passer-by, who didn’t see it and walked on. A second note was then thrown at a man walking towards his granddaughter’s house nearby. The note said: “Call police, he almost killed me. Don’t buzz or knock. Kick the door in. Pls help.” The man spotted it and looked up to see Klaudia standing on a balcony, where she made a “be quiet” gesture before putting her hands together in a praying motion then running her finger across her throat. Vicki Bell, prosecuting, told Dundee Sheriff Court that Klaudia had multiple injuries including bruises on her face and neck and a cut and swelling on her lip. Lawson, 35, a prisoner at HMP Perth, pled guilty on indictment to charges of behaving in a threatening and abusive manner and abduction. Sheriff Alastair Brown deferred sentence until next month and remanded Lawson in custody. He said: “Compressing the neck and restricting her breathing is exceptionally serious.”
She thought the best idea was to go along with it and be nice LAWYER