U.K. model says kidnap ordeal in Italy included 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 who accompanied her the best chance of gaining freedom.

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 transported to a farmhouse near Turin.

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, pending an indictment.

Police said they are looking for as many as four accomplices.