Twenty-year-old U.K. supermodel Chloe Ayling says she was lured to a set-up photo shoot in Milan, Italy, where she was drugged and kidnapped. The model was allegedly held captive for six days and was set to be auctioned-off as a sex slave on the dark web before her captors released her on July 17.
While many of the details surrounding the case remain unclear to police officials, it is suspected that Ayling was freed when her captors realized the young model was a mother.
At least one man has been arrested in connection to the incident.
“Italian police have confirmed they are looking for at least one other man following the arrest of British-resident Pole Lukasz Pawel Herba, 30, on charges of abduction and illegal imprisonment,” reports AFP. Per Italian media, Ayling saw at least one other man aside from Herba, and heard three others, though she never saw their faces.
“Somebody wearing black gloves came up from behind me and put one hand on my neck and the other over my mouth, while a second person wearing a balaclava injected me in my right arm,” recalled Ayling to police authorities.
“I think I passed out because when I woke up I only had on my pink chenille body and socks and I realised I was in the boot of a car, bound at the ankle and wrists with my mouth taped up. I was in a luggage bag with only a small gap to breathe through,” she explained.
Ayling was transferred to a location in a secluded mountain village where she was held for six days, “spending most of her time handcuffed to furniture while her abductors considered their options,” notes AFP.
It has been confirmed by police officials that the supermodel “was injected with the tranquiliser ketamine and said they believe Herba may have been capable of causing her serious physical harm.”
But police are still unable to confirm the specifics surrounding the case. “Detectives are unclear as to whether Herba was involved in a credible attempt to auction his victim or if it was an elaborately staged threat intended to extort a ransom from the model’s agent and family,” notes AFP. Additionally, it was reported that no one participated in the auction, suggesting Herba might have been incapable of pulling off such an operation.
“Fantasist or not, what is clear is that he is a very dangerous man who drugged his victim as soon as she was kidnapped and put her inside a large travel bag in the boot of a car,” Milan deputy prosecutor Paolo Storari told reporters on Saturday.
“His version of events is barely credible but clearly he does not deny that he was with her for the time she was missing,” added Storari.
Furthermore, Herba told Ayling he was connected to the “Black Death” group, a dark internet group which has previously been suspected to be phony:
Herba told the model it was against the Black Death’s code to sell a mother before he released her.
Ayling was set free near the British Consulate on July 17 and Herba was arrested.
The supermodel returned home to London on Sunday and spoke to reporters about the “terrifying experience.”