Pole jailed for 16 years for kidnapping British model
AN Italian court has convicted a Polish man of kidnapping 20-year-old British model Chloe Ayling for ransom in a case that raised the spectre of young women being auctioned off online on encrypted websites.
Lukasz Herba, 30, was jailed for 16 years and nine months at the Milan court.
According to prosecutors, Ms Ayling was lured to Milan with the promise of a modelling gig last July, but was drugged when she showed up at a mocked-up photographic studio.
She was zipped inside a canvas bag and transported to a secluded farmhouse in neighbouring Piedmont.
There, she was held for six days before Herba released her at the British consulate in Milan, prosecutors said. In his initial statement to police, he said he did so out of sympathy for the fact she was a mother.
The lawyer for Ms Ayling, Francesco Pesce, called it “quite an important verdict”.
He said he would seek €500,000 (£438,000) in compensation in separate proceedings, while conceding it was unlikely that Herba could pay.
In his closing arguments, prosecutor Paolo Storari had demanded 16 years and eight months in prison for Herba, pointing out Ms Ayling could have died during the kidnapping.
He said the model was drugged with ketamine, which knocked her out, then put inside a canvas bag and transported to a farmhouse, where she was handcuffed to the furniture for at least the first night.
Herba denied guilt throughout the trial, and claimed that Ms Ayling agreed to the scheme to boost her career.
Herba said he had been in love with Ms Ayling, and that they had concocted the kidnap plot to help her overcome financial difficulties after the birth of her son.
He said: “I never hurt the girl. I was not violent with her. If she felt forced verbally in any way, I am very sorry. But it certainly was not as Chloe has described.
“I was in love and I was hoping that once her fame took off that she would repay me with feelings and we would share the money.”
Previous testimony showed that the two had met on Facebook and had met at least once in person before her pregnancy.
Ms Ayling told investigators that she did not try to escape, even when she accompanied Herba into a shop to buy shoes, as she was terrified, believing his threats that he was part of a bigger criminal gang.