Trigger warning: abuse, kidnapping
Model Chloe Ayling still remembers the "exact moment" she woke up after being drugged and bundled into a suitcase when she was abducted in 2017.
Ayling was lured to Milan, Italy, from London on the promise of a photo shoot by Lukasz Herba, a Polish national who drugged her and took her to a farmhouse.
Highlights
- Model Chloe Ayling was kidnapped in 2017 after being lured to Milan for a fake photo shoot.
- Lukasz Herba pretended to be from the group Black Death, involved in selling models as sex slaves, and demanded a £265,000 ransom.
- Ayling faces continued scrutiny and accusations of faking her abduction as a PR stunt, despite legal rulings against Herba.
Herba injected Ayling with the horse tranquilizer ketamine. Then, he stripped and handcuffed her, placed her in a holdall bag, and drove her 120 miles (193 km) in the boot of a car to a remote farmhouse near Turin.
The model was held captive for six days.
Herba pretended to be from a group called the Black Death, involved with selling models as sex slaves in Saudi Arabia, the BBC reported in June 2018. The kidnapper demanded a $327,650 (£265,000) ransom.
Image credits: chloeayling97
"I can still remember some parts of it so visually," Ayling said during a recent appearance on BBC Breakfast. "I was so heavily drugged, but waking up, I can still remember the feeling of, 'Was I on a boat or was I on a ship?' like it was a crazy dream.
"I still remember that exact moment, but I tend not to think about it. Especially because back then, I talked about it so much. But I kept it out of my mind in my own time."
Herba handed Ayling over to the British consulate after she tricked him into thinking that she would be his girlfriend if he freed her. He was then jailed and sentenced to 16 years and nine months in prison.
Herba's brother, Michal, was also jailed for 16 years, later reduced to five on appeal, for his participation in the kidnapping. He was freed in 2022.
Ayling was drugged with the tranquilizer ketamine, placed in a bag, and taken to a remote farmhouse near Turin
Image credits: Good Morning Britain
At the start of the trial in February 2018, a police officer told the court that Ayling had suffered mental and physical abuse during the kidnap.
Lukasz Herba, described by prosecutors as a "narcissist" who was "obsessed" with the then 20-year-old, claimed she went to the farmhouse with him willingly, which she denied. He alleged that the two had previously met and he had fallen in love with her.
He also claimed he wanted to create a scandal to help her career and that he had been inspired by the plot of the 2016 film By Any Means, which is about a model who arranges her own abduction for publicity.
Seven years on, many people still accuse the model of faking her own abduction as a PR stunt
Image credits: This Morning
Ayling became the target of media scrutiny when CCTV footage emerged of her and Herba holding hands in public.
When asked why she was shopping hand-in-hand with Herba, she said she was "completely brainwashed" into believing her life was in danger from the Black Death Group.
She said Herba was "sexually frustrated," and she was forced to share a bed with him in the farmhouse, but she was not raped.
The court ruled out any involvement from the model. Herba has a parole hearing scheduled for later this year.
Police said that Ayling had suffered mental and physical abuse during the six-day ordeal
Ayling's story will be taken to the small screen with Kidnapped, a six-part drama produced by the BBC. The series, made with the model's blessing, will have Nadia Parkes in the lead role, and it is set to be released on Wednesday (August 14).
Seven years after the traumatizing ordeal, she hopes the show will put an end to the criticism and set the record straight for those who still suspect she orchestrated a publicity stunt.
Image credits: chloeayling97
"At the time, everything was so focused on me, and no one was interested in how the brothers were changing their story every second to completely contradictory ones."
"At the time, everything was so focused on me, and no one was interested in how the brothers were changing their story every second," she said
Image credits: dreading (crime and psychology)
Now, Ayling will tell her own story through the BBC series Kidnapped, which will "show things that no one knew at the time because they were misled by the media"
Image credits: BBC Three
She added: "A lot of people don't understand it. When I see comments, they don't know the facts, and they say things that are not true.
"This is what the drama shows: things that no one knew at the time because they were misled by the media.
"Hopefully, they can get more knowledge from the show and of the case. So, with future victims, they don't get misled by the media and not just jump to conclusions because it's not fair on future victims.
"This should be a lesson for people not to judge victims based on the way they act or react."