Man imprisoned for kidnapping model

MILAN — An Italian court convicted a Polish man Monday of kidnapping a 20-year-old British model for ransom, rejecting the defendant’s claim that the abduction was staged to boost the victim’s career.

The court handed Lukasz Herba a prison sentence of 16 years and nine months — a month longer than prosecutors had requested. Herba denied guilt throughout the trial.

Francesco Pesce, the lawyer for British model Chloe Ayling, called it “quite an important verdict.” Pesce said Ayling was considering civil action in British courts against media outlets that suggested she had lied to become famous.

Beyond the dramatic details — a model lured to Italy’s fashion capital, drugged, zipped in a canvas bag and held for ransom in a secluded farmhouse — omissions in Ayling’s early statements to investigators and her career as a “glamour model” created opportunities for sensationalism.

The six-day kidnapping in July garnered global attention after it emerged that Herba had told Ayling he worked with a group that auctioned off young women on encrypted Internet sites. He also claimed international intelligence experience from agencies such as the CIA and Israel’s Mossad.

Herba said he had been in love with Ayling and that they concocted the kidnap plot to help her overcome financial difficulties after the birth of her son.

Herba was arrested when he released Ayling at the British Consulate in Milan. In his initial statement to police, he said he let her go out of sympathy for her role as a mother.