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MODEL'S KIDNAP HELL
Brit model Chloe Ayling shares harrowing diary from her abduction and says: ‘I was grabbed, injected and put in a bag… I was told: You are for sale’
MODEL Chloe Ayling turned up at a photoshoot in Milan last year – and was drugged and spirited away stuffed in a suitcase to be sold as a sex slave.
The Londoner was kept captive in a remote farmhouse for six days by Polish-born Lukasz Herba, 30, who told her he worked for a human trafficking ring called Black Death.
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British glamour model Chloe Ayling’s ‘kidnapper’ Lucasz Herba appears in Italian court to give evidence
He had set up the fake modelling assignment and announced that Chloe, who has a son aged two, would be auctioned off on the dark web — but eventually ended up handing her over to the British Consulate.
Earlier this month Herba, 30, was found guilty of kidnap and sentenced to 16 years and nine months in jail.
Yesterday, the model hit back at abduction doubters and said ‘I was willing to have sex with cruel kidnapper to stay alive’.
Here Chloe, 21, of Coulsdon, South London, reveals the horrifying day-by-day ordeal in her own words...
Tuesday July 11
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I was so excited to be in Milan — it was like a dream come true.
We pulled up at the address of the studio before 9am. The place looked deserted.
I put my hand on the door handle. That is when two men — one masked — grabbed me, injected me with a syringe, handcuffed me and put me in a bag.
After a long drive they carried me into a remote farmhouse.
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A man I didn’t recognise came into the room. The other man had left.
“You are for sale,” he said. “The auction for you is in five days’ time, on Sunday. The starting price is $300,000 (£250,000).”
He said he was known as “MD”. Apparently he was an operative of a 20-layer mafia called Black Death.
“Black Death are a criminal organisation,” he continued. “It isn’t just trafficking. They do drugs, assassinations, everything.”
He was also an assassin, he told me. He would kill them by poisoning them. It was his way, not too messy.
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He said I had been taken by accident. I had a child. That was against the rules. He would try to help me.
He asked me if I wanted anything from the shop. He made a big deal of it being so far away.
“Toothbrush and toothpaste?” I asked him. He nodded. I am obsessed with my teeth.
That felt like a victory — surely if there was no hope, he wouldn’t be trying to help me.
That first night held captive, I didn’t put up any sort of fight. My mind just shut down then and I closed my eyes and slept.
Wednesday
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According to MD, we weren’t in Italy.
If the police were looking at the studio in Milan, and I was now hundreds of miles away in another country, they might never find me.
Later I lay down on the sleeping bag when he spoke.
“You can have half of the bed if you want to.” He was looking at me in complete seriousness.
“You’d be an idiot to try to escape now,” he said. “It would be the instant death penalty if you tried to escape.”
I was completely numb with fear. My life wasn’t in my hands. I just nodded.
I followed him and saw the double bed in front of me.
Half of it was covered with a yellow blanket and he had put my red blanket on the other half.
I know this might sound strange, but it was such a relief to see a bed.
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I couldn’t face another night on that cold hard floor. It felt more human, more normal, to be on a bed. And I wouldn’t be handcuffed either.
Did I worry that I would be sharing a bed with a man who, at that time, I thought of as being my saviour? No. At that time, he was trying to help me. He wasn’t my kidnapper until I had been released and knew the truth.
He fell asleep before me. I could hear his breathing become heavier and he would get that twitchy leg thing, where his leg would move suddenly but not wake him up.
At no point did I think I could make a run for it, or I should make a run for it. There was no point thinking about escaping.
I was just too scared. I started to cry then.
It was time for me to have a bit of a release, let the enormity of the situation hit me.
How it all happened
APRIL 21, 2017: Chloe travels for a shoot in Paris booked through her modelling agent. She meets Lukasz Herba who booked the shoot. The session is postponed after a gun attack in the city.
JULY 11: Chloe goes to studio in Milan for rearranged shoot. She is drugged and taken to a remote farmhouse.
JULY 12: Police storm the fake studio and find Chloe’s clothes and passport.
JULY 15: Captive Chloe is taken shopping by Herba, who buys her trainers.
JULY 17: Herba hands Chloe over to the British Consulate, ordering her to tell them he is a friend.
FEBRUARY 7, 2018: Herba’s trial starts in Milan.
JUNE 11: Herba is convicted of kidnapping and drugging Chloe. He is jailed for 16 years and nine months.
JUNE 22: His brother Michal Herba, 37, is extradited to Italy to stand trial for his alleged part in the kidnap.
Thursday
Model Chloe Ayling describes how she had to sleep next to her kidnapper
He asked if I wanted a shower. It was a mistake that I had been taken in the first place, so he was showing that I would be treated in a civil manner.
I came out of the shower feeling like a different person. I was still here, I was alive and I felt for the first time that I might be OK.
He talked about his assassinations. He was saying it so casually, like it was normal. That was what was so scary. He could have been telling me he stacked shelves in Tesco, the way he spoke about it. He killed people for a living.
I suppose I was intrigued. He told me how he killed people — his technique, as it were.
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It was quite simple, he explained. He would use poison or rifles. And he had killed many people. He had killed in the thousands, he said.
He said he did not get emotional over it — he did it so regularly, he said. It didn’t affect him.
He found a notepad and we played quite a few games of hangman to pass the time.
And he taught me how to play Battleships, too. I had never played it before and it was something else to do.
Friday
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Waking up on Friday morning, I felt different.
I struggled to open my eyes and raise my head from the pillow.
He then told me I was beautiful. I was taken aback. Up until this point there had been nothing but a professional air to him. He was trying to be flattering, to show affection, but I didn’t know how to respond.
Could he kiss me? he asked. There was no way I was going to kiss this man. But I never clearly said no.
I made sure that I didn’t upset him. I was doing whatever I could to stay alive.
“Maybe when I’m free,” I said.
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He never pushed himself on me or tried to actually kiss me.
He did though show me the knives he carried.
One was a flick-knife, the other a simple-looking sharp knife with a black handle.
“Go ahead, hold them,” he said to me. So I did. They were lighter than I expected.
Did I ever, even for a split second, feel like using them against him? Me, using a knife against a trained killer?
I would be dead in seconds. So no, I never thought of using them.
He showed me the online advert for my auction. It showed a photo taken after I was drugged.
It said I was being held in Germany. It gave my measurements. It said my age. That night he offered me chocolate. I was so hungry and felt so weak I just needed something.
Michal Konrad Herba, brother of alleged kidnapper of Brit model Chloe Ayling, to fight extradition to Italy
Saturday
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I woke up in the morning with a sense of dread. There was one more day until my auction would begin and I would be sold into a life of rape and torture and murder.
I broke down. This was the first time I had cried in front of him.
“I have lied to you, Chloe,” MD said. “We are still in Italy.”
He told me he’d lied to save my life. He thought that if he had said we weren’t as isolated as we were, I might try to escape. And with Black Death watching my every move, it would be instant death.
Instead, he had decided to help me escape, and take me to the British Consulate in Milan.
Abducted British model Chloe Ayling reveals terrifying ordeal at hands of Black death kidnappers in Italy
“There is a village,” he said. “I will take you there tomorrow. You will need trainers when you are released.
“I will need to take you to the consulate on Monday but you will have to walk some of the way there. We will go tomorrow to get trainers.”
Going to a village? Tomorrow? I would see daylight! I would be outside, fresh air... I would see people... It was too much to take in. This was going to be amazing.
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Sunday
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We had probably been in the car about 15 or 20 minutes when the roads narrowed into one-track lanes as we approached a small village. MD parked in a little car park.
We walked down a little street. He reached for my hand and I held it. I felt I had to.
We went through the door of a shop and I pointed to the first pair of trainers I saw.
Getting back to the house, where it was just him and me, it felt safe. No one else could get to me. I closed my eyes.
Tomorrow I will be free.
Monday
We arrived by 7.30am. The consulate didn’t open until 9.30am.
He told me he would come into the consulate with me but that I had to say he was a friend.
We entered and sat down on the chairs. A blonde lady came to the window. She looked about 40 years old. Her name was Nicoletta.
“I was kidnapped.” My first words. She was the first person I had spoken to other than MD for days. I was safe.
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Only later would I find out MD’s real name was Lukasz Herba, and that he was a Polish national.
I find it funny how people question me about Lukasz’s tactics, though.
Like I’m meant to know why he did certain things, or acted in certain ways. I just want to say I have no idea!
I don’t know why he did what he did. He is completely insane.
I don’t know why he took me to the consulate. I don’t know why he would go to the effort of drugging and kidnapping me.
I don’t know why he took me into the village for shoes. But I DO KNOW I am free.
- Extract adapted by AMY JONES. , published by John Blake.
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