Lawyer: U.K. model’s unusual tale of kidnap in Italy is true

LONDON — A 20-yearold British model says she was lured to Italy with the promise of a photo shoot, then drugged, stuffed into a suitcase, transported to an isolated farmhouse and held, at times in handcuffs, for almost a week.

Chloe Ayling has told police the “terrifying experience” ended when her captor, who had threatened to hold her for ransom or advertise her for sale as sex slave on the criminal “dark web,” decided instead to drop her off at the British Consulate in Milan.

Italian police announced that they have arrested a suspect: a 30-year-old Polish man who claimed to be a paid killer for a group called the Black Death.

Francesco Pesce, the lawyer Ayling has while the case is under investigation — standard procedure in Italy — acknowledged Monday that aspects of the case seem bizarre. He said investigators initially had “more than understandable doubts” about the model’s story, but the events “later turned out to be true.”

The model went to Milan on July 11 for a photo shoot at what her agent, Phil Green, said was “a recognized studio in the city center.”

When she got there, her lawyer said, a man grabbed her by the neck while another injected her with a dose of the anesthetic Ketamine “strong enough to knock her to the ground.”

Police said the suspect in custody, Lukasz Pawel Herba, a Polish citizen with British residency, advertised her “sale” online, while at the same time demanding $300,000 ransom from her agent. Authorities said as far as they know, no ransom was paid.

According to Italian media reports, Ayling said she was released on July 17 when her captor discovered she had a small child. He said abducting a mother was against the rules of his shadowy criminal organization.