Glamour model agreed to fake kidnap for cash, says accused
THE man accused of kidnapping Chloe Ayling, the British glamour model, in order to auction her off as a sex slave, testified in an Italian court yesterday that the two had agreed to fake the crime to increase her popularity.
“We had an agreement that the money we would have earned we would have split and then we could even go out together,” Lukasz Herba, 30, told the court.
He claimed Ms Ayling helped him write emails demanding a ransom for her return, noting that she helped him correct his English grammar. He said the kidnap was staged but abandoned when it attracted little media interest.
Herba said the 20-year-old model from south London climbed into a large bag herself. He told the court that she did not know about the kidnapping plan when she arrived in Milan, but agreed to it after it was revealed to her.
The court was earlier shown video of Ms Ayling retracing her steps from the bogus photo studio in Milan where she claims she was drugged and kidnapped to the remote farmhouse where she reported she was held for six days.
However a number of witnesses from Viù, the mountain village north of Turin, said they spotted the two shopping and walking amicably together.
Mr Herba was arrested after releasing Ms Ayling at the British consulate.