Model’s reps say her ordeal was real despite shoe shopping trip
MILAN — A model who claimed she was kidnapped in Italy and held captive in a remote farmhouse was spotted shopping with her alleged captor during the time she said she was being held, according to court documents obtained Tuesday by the Associated Press.
Chloe Ayling initially told Milan police she was held for six days, at times with her hands and feet cuffed to a dresser, until one of her kidnappers released her at the British Consulate in Milan on July 17.
But on the second day of questioning, detectives presented the 20-year-old with a statement from a saleswoman who said she sold shoes to the model and the main suspect in her abduction the day before Ayling turned up at the consulate.
In tears, the young woman told investigators she couldn’t give a “reasonable explanation” for why she had omitted the shopping trip but said she considered the man her best chance of gaining freedom.
Ayling’s account of a startling ordeal has garnered international media attention since details about the case emerged over the weekend.
Police released a dramatic narrative about how the woman was allegedly lured to Milan with the promise of a modeling job, then drugged at a supposed photographer’s studio on July 11, zipped inside a canvas bag and taken to a farmhouse near Turin.
‘It was real and frightening’
The young woman said when she regained consciousness in the trunk of a station wagon, her jeans and sneakers were missing and she was wearing just her pink body suit and gray socks. She said she was told she would be auctioned off online, according to her deposition.
Milan police, citing Ayling’s description of the events, said her kidnappers also informed her she had been captured by a criminal group called ‘‘Black Death” and that she would be held for ransom or sold on the clandestine “dark web.”
The main suspect, Lukasz Pawel Herba, freed her at the British Consulate in Milan. He has been arrested on charges of kidnapping to extort money and falsifying documents.
Police said they are looking for as many as four accomplices.
Both Ayling’s Italian lawyer and the talent agent who sent her to Italy lashed out Tuesday at skeptics who have expressed doubts about her story.
“I can assure everybody that it was real and very frightening for all concerned,” agent Phil Green of the Supermodel Agency said.
The lawyer, Francesco Pesce, said his client had been threatened with death throughout the ordeal and decided it was better to cooperate with Herba.
Ayling is what, in Britain, is called a “glamour model,” specializing in scantily clad or topless photo shoots. She has appeared in British tabloids and worked around Europe.
Green said the Milan photo shoot seemed legitimate. The person who made the booking had “a website, previous pictures ... details of what the shoot was going to be, times, locations, fee — everything,” he said.
But the day after Ayling was due to return, Green says he received a ransom demand for $300,000.
Ayling told police she first met Herba, a 30-year-old Polish national, briefly when she was brought to Paris for another modeling job earlier this year.
Kidnapping for cancer?
Herba, who has British residency and speaks English, provided an account just as detailed as Ayling’s and more incredible.
He told investigators that three Romanians hired him to rent properties around Europe to store garments they intended to sell. He said he was drawn into the kidnapping scheme to raise money to treat his leukemia.
The Milan investigators expressed incredulity at the 500,000 pounds ($649,000) Herba said he was paid to rent the properties. They also said he did not provide the names of doctors or other evidence of an illness.
The suspect also claimed he did not participate in Ayling’s kidnapping. He told police he came to her aid when he saw her photos posted with an online auction. He said she was free to go once the Romanians had abandoned the farmhouse but that she stayed.
She said she did not flee because Herba told her members of the group were watching and she feared for her life.