HAVING been kidnapped, drugged and threatened with being sold as a sex slave and fed to tigers, the last thing to cross Chloe Ayling’s mind was that she may not be believed.
The glamour model, 20, from Coulsdon, south London, had been held hostage for six days by twisted brothers Lukasz and Michal Herba, believing she would be auctioned off on the dark web.
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The Polish siblings, who lived in the West Midlands, booked Chloe for a ‘commercial photoshoot’ in Milan, Italy, but instead drugged her with ketamine and abducted her in July 2017.
After stripping the mum-of-one to her bodysuit, she was bundled into a suitcase, stashed in a car boot and driven 120 miles to a remote farmhouse, near Turin.
The Herba brothers, who claimed to be working for fictional dark web thugs The Black Death Group, demanded €300,000 (£234,000) ransom from her modelling agent and family.
If they refused, they threatened to sell her online as a sex slave and they claimed within a few days her purchasers would feed her to their tigers after growing bored of her.
Miraculously, Chloe was freed after six days at the British consulate in Milan after convincing Lukasz that she would be his girlfriend when the terrifying ordeal was over.
Nearly a month later, Chloe told the media in a statement outside her home: “I feared for my life, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour.”
Despite the traumatic events, her account was heavily scrutinised after the Herba brothers’ lawyer claimed the abduction was faked to boost the model’s career.
Eventually, Chloe was vindicated when Lukasz and Michael were both sentenced to nearly 17 years for kidnapping – although both would later have their prison stints reduced.
Now the ordeal and vilification suffered by the model has been turned into a new six-part BBC drama called Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story, which stars Nadia Parkes.
Ahead of the first episode airing tonight, we look at the some of the questions raised by the case and how the brave victim fought back to be believed.
Why wasn’t Chloe kept safe?
In the wake of what happened to Chloe, some have asked why there were not better safety checks in place for the model that could have prevented her ordeal.
Her agent Phil Green, a lawyer and part-time DJ, would later tell Good Morning Britain that he felt responsible for what happened.
He insisted he “didn’t want to send her to the hands of a kidnapper” but at the time everything about the photoshoot “checked out”.
Two months prior to the kidnapping in July 2017, Chloe had been booked by the same photographer for a shoot.
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The man named Andre Lazio – later revealed to be Lukasz Herba – had arranged for her to travel to Paris for a commercial campaign.
It would have seen Chloe draped over a motorcycle but was cancelled at the last minute when Andre claimed the studio had been robbed.
The fake agent paid £2,000 – considered a high sum for the gig – for the cancelled appointment in order to appear more legitimate so that Chloe and her agent would be less likely to question his next booking.
The Page 3 model was used to going abroad for work – shortly before the kidnapping she had been in Dubai – and previously said of her job: “I love travel and it allows me to travel.”
Unbeknown to Chloe, she was Facebook friends with her abductor and accepted his request two years earlier – as well as scores of other strangers – in the belief that “the more she had, the higher her profile”, according to The Guardian.
Additionally, it was revealed that Lukasz once met the model to give her money for a taxi after the cancelled Paris photoshoot but disguised his appearance with large sunglasses.
Instead of being praised for being smart, tactical and brave in doing this to survive, the media and public chose not to believe me.
Chloe Ayling
Concerns were raised about Chloe’s whereabouts when the 20-year-old didn’t return to the UK via Gatwick airport and her mum contacted her agent Phil, who didn’t know where she was.
The next morning, Phil received a ransom email from a man known as ‘MD’ at ‘The Black Death Group’ – one of Lukasz’s aliases from a fake dark web organisation.
In the note, they demanded €300,000 (£234,000) for Chloe’s safe release and threatened to sell her as a sex slave on the dark web, should they refuse to pay up.
Phil quickly contacted the UK consulate in Milan, who spoke to Italian police. Days later, he also emailed the kidnapper to say someone who knew the model had offered £20,000 to get her home – the offer was dismissed.
After her release, Chloe dumped her modelling agent because she felt he had compromised her safety.
Why didn’t Chloe try to run away?
Questions were also raised when CCTV footage emerged that showed Chloe holding hands with Lukasz while shopping for shoes at a camping shop.
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The model said many have since asked “Why didn’t I run?” and in response has argued “it’s easy for them to say” because they hadn’t been “in my situation”.
She said: “I was with an assassin that’s always armed, I was shown knives.”
Chloe had been trying to convince her kidnapper to let her go after realising he “had a crush on me”, which she knew she “had to use to my advantage” to survive.
She said: “It was me going into survival mode. That was my instinct in the situation. I couldn’t tell him I wasn’t interested. I was in danger, I was just trying to survive.
“While nothing happened physically between us, I used his vulnerability and convinced him that it could and that we could be a couple if he released me.”
Believing Lukasz was going to help her, she feared trying to escape of in case it didn’t go to plan and left her in even greater danger.
Who is Lukasz Herba
By Corey Charlton, Richard Wheatstone and Jimmy Grant
LUKASZ Herba claimed to be an assassin working for the Black Death Group when he kidnapped British glamour model and mum-of-one Chloe Ayling.
Here is everything we know about Herba and the shocking case, which features in the BBC factual drama ‘Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story.
Lukasz Herba was convicted of kidnapping the model on June 11, 2018 and sentenced to 16 years and nine months in prison.
He was found guilty of drugging her when she showed up in Milan for a modelling job.
The now 33-year-old was convicted in a court in the Italian city and jailed for more than 16 years.
Herba had claimed Chloe agreed to the scheme as part of a publicity stunt to boost her career.
But in 2020 his sentence was reduced by almost five years because a judge ruled he ”acted out of love”.
Herba claimed she wanted to raise her profile in an effort to amass more followers on her paid-for Facebook profile, which had “spicy photographs” for cash.
He said they met on the social media platform and planned the kidnap together because she told him she was cash strapped.
Polish-born Herba denied abducting Chloe during his trial in Milan.
Police say Herba demanded £250,000 to stop a human trafficking auction, hosted on pornographic sites on the dark web.
He was arrested on July 17, 2017, after delivering Chloe to the British consulate in Milan.
She claims he took pity on her after she told him she had a then two-year-old son.
The alleged kidnapper told police he had no idea of the kidnap plan when he was paid £500,000 by Romanians to pose as a photographer and meet Chloe.
He said when he found out they were planning to kidnap her he backed out of the plan.
The so-called Black Death group is an organisation which claims to be responsible for a network of kidnapping and people trafficking.
Although rumours of its existence have circulated for several years, the kidnapping of Chloe Ayling in Milan is believed to be the only suspected crime authorities have publicly linked it to.
The name is notorious on sections of the internet due to the apparent scale and depravity of its offending, though it’s not clear if its photos touting women for sale are authentic, nor if it is as proficient as it claims to be.
It’s claimed that users of the dark web pay huge fees to buy women who have been kidnapped from across Europe.
A 2015 article by Vice’s Motherboard stated their reporter had found images of women chained up with the victim being offered for sale £115,000.
Chloe added: “I have someone promising to help me to get out and to settle it with the rest of the people in the gang, so if I was to run from him, not only would that turn him against me, it would be the whole gang.
“So that was the main reason that it wouldn’t cross my mind to run – because I was brainwashed into relying on him to put an end to it.
“You’re relying on that power over him to be able to get out. I wouldn’t change anything I did in captivity. It led to me being released.”
Why Chloe didn’t tell police about shopping trip?
Later some would criticise Chloe for not telling police about the shopping trip, which had been caught on CCTV.
In 2018, she explained to The Guardian that this was due to exhaustion from her ordeal and lengthy interview with police – as well as believing it would be too difficult to explain and she may not be believed.
“It was so bad, I was shocked,” Chloe said. “I had just spent 12 hours giving as much detail as I can and there’s one thing I don’t mention. I broke down.”
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The model denied holding back that information because she “thought she had messed up” and argued noone should judge “when you’re not in the situation”.
She continued: “I just thought, I’ve given so much information, even though I’m in so much danger, but at the end of the day, you’re not going to believe me.
“I was angry and frustrated for not mentioning something so minor.”
I feared for my life, second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour.
Chloe
During a recent interview with The Times, Chloe said she felt she was being blamed and scrutinised over every detail of her account rather than her efforts to save herself being recognised.
She said: “Instead of being praised for being smart, tactical and brave in doing this to survive, the media and public chose not to believe me.
“They used this to say how holding hands with the kidnapper and not trying to escape was weird.”
Why Chloe smiled during post-release interview?
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Upon arriving back in the UK, Chloe gave a brief statement to the media outside her home – but instead of focussing on her words, many latched onto her appearance and demeanour.
In an interview on Lorraine, the model took umbridge against the claim that she didn’t “look traumatised enough” to be a victim.
Chloe explained that she was “smiling” because she was finally free of her ordeal and had been allowed to fly home.
She had spent nearly a week as a hostage and a further three weeks away from her family and loved one while assisting the police.
She said: “I had been waiting for that moment for a month, I had been on the phone with my mum every day… So of course, I’m going to be smiling when I’m finally outside my house. I was so happy to be home.”
This month, Chloe explained her ‘unusual’ response was due to regularly hiding her emotions since childhood.
The fact that they still don’t take accountability and still want to make lies and not be responsible for what they did [is] even more annoying
Chloe
Chloe added: “Yes, I was smiling, I’ve always been like that.
“I never wanted anyone to see me cry. The other kids would make a big drama, but I could have the biggest cut and I’d hold in tears, so I was just trying to put on a brave face.”
Others pointed to the model’s decision to wear a low-cut vest top and shorts, which some labelled a “sexy press outfit”.
Chloe said that was how she would typically dress that way on a hot day and added: “It was actually modest for me.”
She had been wearing a jacket and had “just taken it off”, moments before going outside to speak to the press, because she was in her home.
Where is Chloe now?
In the years that following, Chloe continued to defend herself from attacks online and says she has lost friends due to the ordeal.
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“Now I only have a handful of people I trust – my manager, a couple of friends from school,” she told The Times.
Lucasz Herba had his sentence reduced from 16 years and nine months to 12 years and one month in 2020 due to a judging ruling he had “acted compassionately” by letting Chlose go.
Michal Herba, 42, was released in 2022 after his charge was changed from ‘kidnapping for extortion’ to ‘kidnapping’ and his sentence reduced to five years and eight months.
Speaking of their sentences Chloe said: “I think he should have been in prison for a lot longer.
“The fact that they still don’t take accountability and still want to make lies and not be responsible for what they did [is] even more annoying.”
The mum, who went on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018, now lives a quieter life in rural Wales but continues to model and has an OnlyFans account.
She also wrote the book, Kidnapped, which was published in 2018 and forms the basis for the BBC drama.
Chloe says she is “excited” about the show, which writer Georgia Lester hopes will tell the bigger picture of “how we treat victims, especially women”.
Chloe added: “The wider world will get to know the truth about what happened to me and learn of the many details that weren’t brought to light originally.”
Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story airs at 9pm tonight on BBC3. All episodes are available to stream on BBC iPlayer.