Kidnap model ‘held suspect’s hand in street’
MODEL Chloe Ayling was filmed apparently holding hands with her alleged kidnapper the day before she was set free, a court heard yesterday.
CCTV images showed Ms Ayling and suspect Lukasz Herba strolling along a street in the Italian city of Turin wearing matching outfits.
The pictures taken in the suburb of Viu appeared to show the pair handin-hand, it was said.
Herba is on trial in Milan accused of drugging 20-year-old Ms Ayling when she turned up for a bogus photoshoot last July.
Police say she was injected with the horse tranquilliser ketamine and stuffed into a big holdall by two men.
Sinister
Serena Ferrari, of Milan’s Flying Squad, told the court she was bundled into the back of a car and driven to a farmhouse near Turin while being repeatedly threatened en route.
Polish-born Herba, 30, allegedly warned Ms Ayling he was a member of a sinister group called Black Death.
He allegedly demanded 50,000 bitcoins, a crypto-currency traded on the internet, and sent pictures of the model lying unconscious and halfnaked on the floor.
He released her five days later after she promised not to reveal Black Death’s existence and to say she had been treated well, the court heard.
During her captivity Ms Ayling, a mother-of-one, from Coulsdon, south London, was said to have endured “physical and psychological violence” – but also went shopping for clothes. After she failed to return calls home, Phil Green, of the London-based Supermodel Agency, raised the alarm with the British consulate in Milan, who in turn alerted police.
Mr Green later received an email, allegedly sent by Herba, which read: “I am MD a medium level killer representing Black Death. The girl has been taken and she will be auctioned online in the Middle East.”
Herba, who prosecutors say planned to sell the model into the sex trade, shook his head several times as the email was read to the court.
Judge Ilio Mannucci Pacini was told Herba posed as a “mythomaniac adventurer” who claimed to have kidnapped and killed before in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The court was told he had used a false name to initially contact Mr Green for a photo-shoot in Paris.
It was scheduled for last April and Ms Ayling flew to France but Herba cancelled at the last minute, claiming his cameras had been stolen.
Police say this was the start of the kidnap planning.
A month later, Herba bought two balaclavas online as well as a fake ID for him and his brother Michal. He was arrested on July 17 after taking Ms Ayling to the British consulate.
He denies kidnap and claims it was all a publicity stunt, which the model strongly denies. The trial continues.
Brother Michal, of Sandwell, West Midlands, is in custody in Britain.