Kidnap Chloe: Would you still call me a liar if I was a teacher and not ‘just’ a glamour model?
CHLOE AYLING today hits out against vile internet trolls who accuse her of lying about her kidnapping – and claims that ‘anyone less strong might have killed themselves’ over the ordeal.
The 20-year-old glamour model told The Mail on Sunday last night: ‘If I was from a better-off family and did something more normal for a living, like a teacher, people would have believed me straight away.’
In an exclusive interview with this newspaper last week, Miss Ayling gave a detailed account of being snatched and drugged by Polish national Lukasz Herba and an accomplice after she was lured to a fake fashion shoot in Milan.
She was bundled into a suitcase and driven to a remote farmhouse, before being dramatically set free after six days when she befriended her captor. The story made headlines around the world.
But despite the arrest of two of the alleged kidnappers, it seems Miss Ayling’s nightmare is far from over. For the mother-of-one today reveals how she is suffering from terrifying flashbacks, made worse by trolls on social media and even so-called friends who have publicly accused her of making up her story as a cynical publicity stunt.
As Miss Ayling rounds on her critics, The Mail on Sunday can reveal:
She has given a statement to British police claiming Lukasz’s accomplice was his older brother, Michal, 36, who was arrested in the UK on Wednesday;
Italian police sources say Michal’s DNA has been found in the car the Herba brothers allegedly used to transport Miss Ayling to the farmhouse;
Neighbours of their mother, Lucyna, say Michal was seen visiting the family home in Szczecin, Poland, in the weeks following the kidnapping;
Friends of Lukasz reveal he was an ‘oddball’ who recently joined a gun club in the West Midlands and would fire guns dressed in a designer suit.
On Thursday, Michal appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court to fight his extradition to Italy, where he faces charges of kidnap for extortion.
His lawyer, Katherine Newey, said he denies all the charges.
Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday, Chloe says: ‘I’ve been inundated with comments online from people telling me I’m lying. I turned my messages off after I got 10,000.
‘Most of them were horrible. I feel like people have judged me because I was a glamour model. No one should judge someone because of their background.
‘Someone less strong in my position might have even killed themselves.’ But amid the tide of insults, there was one message which stood out and struck a chord.
Miss Ayling says: ‘One person sent me a message, which said, “If it was a snivelling mousy-haired woman, everyone would be sympathising. Police have evidence, a man arrested but Chloe is an easy target from mostly mean women.”
‘I saved a screenshot of that message because I agreed with it so much. If I was a teacher or social worker or something “normal” then I don’t think I would have faced these accusations.’
She adds: ‘It can’t be right that people can just say these horrible things and they’re not even brave enough to put their names to them.
‘I’ve been able to deal with it because I’ve had all the abuse before – when you’re a glamour model, people think they can say all sorts of nasty things to you. They don’t even know me. I am not your typical glamour model – I don’t drink alcohol or like nightclubs. I prefer to go on long dog walks.
‘Last week, I saw other glamour models posting photos online mocking me by hiding in a suitcase and it made me feel upset. I thought these people were my friends.’
Last week, The Mail on Sunday published the first extensive interview with Miss Ayling, in which she described the dramatic story of her capture and release.
The model, from Coulsdon, Surrey, was lured to a fake photoshoot in Milan where she was pounced on by two masked men, injected with the drug ketamine and taken in the boot of a car 110 miles to a remote farmhouse near Turin. Her captor, Lukasz Herba, claimed she would be auctioned on the internet for £273,000 as a sex slave by a criminal network called Black Death, unless a £39,000 ransom was paid.
But after feigning a bond with Lukasz in a bid to win his trust, he dramatically set her free at the British Consulate in Milan and was subsequently arrested.
Finally back home, Miss Ayling admits she is still trying to come to terms with what has happened.
‘I have been suffering from flashbacks. One of the worst ones was when I had to give evidence against Lukasz in court before I was
allowed to fly home,’ she says. ‘I was behind a screen but I could hear the rattle of his handcuffs and it took me back to that first night in the farmhouse. ‘I still don’t feel safe. I went to dinner at a restaurant with a friend the other night and I was so scared someone would come up behind me, like when I was kidnapped. ‘I become more anxious and paranoid at night when it’s dark. I feel like I am back in the house where I was taken. I only sleep when I’m exhausted.’ She also reveals her concern at reports Lukasz has been taped in a prison phone call telling his mother that Michal must delete incriminating emails and ‘get rid of the car’.
‘I imagined Lukasz might be able to get a message to Black Death from prison and they will come for me,’ she adds. ‘I imagine the men coming for me and killing me. The rational part of me knows Black Death probably doesn’t exist but my imagination runs wild.
‘I was at home on Sunday and I didn’t have anything to do. I had more time to think and I started to feel scared again. I’ve been surrounding myself with friends and family as I don’t want to be alone.
‘When Lukasz released me he gave me a note from Black Death demanding I pay them $50,000 within a month. That expired this week and part of me is still worried that someone will come to collect.’
Miss Ayling’s agent, Mark Cowne, of celebrity agency Kruger Cowne, said: ‘Chloe has been through a terrible ordeal and nothing can justify the abuse she has received from mindless online trolls who know almost nothing about her case.
‘She is a victim of one of the most awful things imaginable, yet she has been forced to defend herself against sick accusations that she is a liar and a fraud. You have to wonder whether a middle-class girl from the Home Counties would have suffered the same fate.’