Latest news with #LukaszHerba
News.com.au
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
No one believed Chloe Ayling's sex slave ordeal. Now she knows why
Chloe Ayling was just 20 was she was drugged, kidnapped, and told she was being sold as a sex slave against her will. Ayling was the first victim of the 'mid-high level contract killer' Å�ukasz Herba, a 30-year-old Polish computer programmer who lived in the UK, described 'a fantasist with narcissistic tendencies' in court. But despite her horror ordeal, which saw the glamour model from London held captive for six days after jetting to Italy for a fake job in Milan, many cast doubt over her shocking story. Some struggled to believe Ayling when she said she was able to convince her kidnapper – who had a bounty on her head of $300,000 – to release her by 'getting him to like me'. Herba did set her free, and even drove her back to Milan, leaving her outside the UK consulate, which only fuelled the vicious rumours further. Further doubt was cast when Ayling fronted a pack of waiting media outside her home, smiling as she read out a short, pre-written statement about her living nightmare. Even when her captor was jailed in Italy for 16 years for the kidnap and extortion, a year after the headline-hitting abduction, suspicions didn't falter. Now, eight years on, Ayling has revealed 'the hate never went away' in a new three-part BBC documentary that explores the wild reason 'no one believed' her gut-wrenching story. 'What is it about me and this story that makes it so hard to believe?' she asks at the opening of each episode in the docu-series. The mum-of-one details how the trauma of not being believed has lingered with her all these years, stating it 'the aftermath definitely affected me more, long-term, than the actual kidnap itself'. '[But] it was my calmness that saved me. 'I want to show a victim doesn't have to fit into a typical box to be believed.' She's since been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a developmental condition that affects how people communicate, interact with others, and behave. In the doco, she explains how her then undiagnosed symptoms were behind some of the reasons many struggled to believe the complex tale of her abduction. 'That's a big relief actually in being diagnosed,' she explains at another point in the documentary, while flicking through childhood pictures. 'I had a lot of difficulties with communication. I'd react in the wrong way. If I was being told off I would smile. I just had the wrong reactions to things.' As a result, Ayling, now 28, has spent years fighting to convince others about what happened. Her ordeal began after she landed in Milan, lured there believing she had booked for a photo shoot involving motorcycle leathers. But after arriving at the studio in July 2017, she was snatched by two men in balaclavas, who proceeded to inject ketamine into her arm before gagging and then bundling her into a holdall bag in the boot of a car. The model was then taken to a remote farmhouse where she was handcuffed to a chest of drawers before her agent was sent an email demanding a $300,000 ransom from someone claiming to be a 'mid-high level contract killer' who worked for an organised crime group that traded in human beings. If the agent didn't pay up, Ayling was set to be auctioned as a sex slave on the dark web. The threatening email even included the so-called advert: 'Chloe: Caucasian; 34DD-25-35.' Three photos of her were attached, showing the young woman in swimwear lying on the floor while looking utterly terrified. During her captivity, Ayling started chatting to her kidnapper, and decided to use his growing 'infatuation' with her to try and escape. 'The more we started talking, the more the bond was kind of forming and once I realised he was starting to like me, I knew I had to use that to my advantage,' she told BBC reporter Victoria Derbyshire in 2018. Herba said in court he fell in love with Ayling before they met and hoped the kidnapping would create a scandal to help her modelling career. The model said within two days of being held captive, she agreed to share a bed with Herba. She recalled her kidnapper asking if they could share a kiss and have a relationship. 'I thought, 'This is my chance to get out',' she told the BBC. 'Once I saw his reaction to what I was saying, that things could happen in the future — he was acting excited and really looking forward to it and always talking about it — it was that response that made me realise I needed to keep doing that. 'I had to do everything I could to make him fall in love with me.' Once she was freed, Herba was arrested, and claimed that Ayling was involved in the kidnapping and that it was a publicity stunt to further her modelling career. Witnesses told authorities they saw Ms Ayling and Herba in a cafe appearing to enjoy their time together. They were also spotted walking hand-in-hand. As a result, Ayling was ridiculed by media and scrutinised by the public who became obsessed with the fact she may have made the whole story up. The new BBC series features exclusive interviews with the anonymous UK detective, from the Regional Organised Crime Unit, who – along with three officers from Milan Police and the judge at her kidnapper's trial – all stand by Ayling's version of events, with the judge describing her testimony as 'extremely precise, specific and detailed'. Herba's sentence of 16 years and nine months was later reduced to just over 11 years on appeal. He was also ordered to pay 60,000 euros
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Chloe Ayling was kidnapped to be sold as a sex slave. No one believed her
Chloe Ayling, a glamour model from Coulsdon, south London, was attending what she had been told was a photo shoot for motorcycle leathers in Milan. Upon arriving at the studio in July 2017, she was grabbed by two men in balaclavas, who injected ketamine into her arm and bundled her, gagged, into a holdall in the boot of a car. She was taken to a remote farmhouse where she was handcuffed to a chest of drawers before her agent was sent an email from someone claiming to be a 'mid-high level contract killer' working for an organised crime group that traded in human beings. He was then sent an ultimatum: hand over $300,000 within five days, or the 20-year-old would be auctioned as a sex slave on the dark web. It even included an advert: 'Chloe: Caucasian; 34DD-25-35.' Attached were three photos of her in swimwear lying on the floor. The detective superintendent appointed to lead the case, who chooses to remain anonymous, said: 'I've seen dead people who looked in a far better condition.' Ayling was a victim, first of the 'mid-high level contract killer' who turned out to be Łukasz Herba, a 30-year-old West Midlands-based Polish computer programmer described in court as 'a fantasist with narcissistic tendencies'. And then, after she was freed following six days in captivity, she became a victim of the Italian justice system, which published her name against her wishes, and the British media, which refused to believe the details of the seemingly harebrained plot. As a result, attention and scepticism soon switched to her strangely detached demeanour about the whole affair. 'What is it about me and this story that makes it so hard to believe?' she asks at the opening of each episode of a new three-part BBC documentary, Chloe Ayling: My Unbelievable Kidnapping. The series follows umpteen tabloid stories about the model, appearances on a parade of ITV daytime sofas and a 2024 BBC dramatisation of the tale, Kidnapped. Ayling's difficulty in expressing emotion was one of the key reasons the press and public refused to take her story at face value. 'Too happy, too composed, too relaxed,' summed up broadcaster Eamonn Holmes at the time. But in the documentary, she breaks down in tears as she recalls the harrowing details of her abduction. The man she knew as 'MD' served her a plate of rice cakes while telling her he was an assassin whose favoured method of murder was poisoning: 'No one investigates a heart attack,' he said. He explained that he worked for an organisation called Black Death and that even if he wanted to release her, there were powerful figures above him who would not allow it. Ayling's natural stoicism gave her an extraordinary presence of mind during her ordeal. She calmly spurned Herba's sexual advances, saying she was 'not feeling it' while chained to furniture, but he 'lit up' at discussion of what she might agree to once free. She reveals she 'started talking to him about the future, to lead him on, and make him want to fight to release me'. What Ayling was unaware of was that Black Death was not a far-reaching criminal enterprise, but an invention by Herba, and that he had enlisted the assistance of his brother, Michal, in snatching her from the studio. When Ayling's contacts failed to stump up the $300,000, Herba agreed to release her on condition she said nothing to the police and paid $50,000 within the month. He drove her to the British consulate, posing as a friend she had called upon her release. Neither of them knew that the officials there had been alerted to her abduction, and Herba was promptly arrested. Ayling's evidence helped convict him of kidnapping and extortion, with a prison sentence reduced on appeal to just over 11 years. If that were not vindication enough of Ayling's account, the BBC series features exclusive interviews with the anonymous UK detective, from the Regional Organised Crime Unit, along with three officers from Milan Police and the judge at her kidnapper's trial: all stand by Ayling's version of events, the judge describing her testimony as 'extremely precise, specific and detailed'. Yet, eight years on, suspicion and hostility still stalk Ayling, who says: 'The hate never went away'. It has ranged from a belligerent Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain to trolls on social media who have continued to post damning remarks such as 'a lying mastermind, dumb but gorgeous'. 'The aftermath definitely affected me more, long-term, than the actual kidnap itself,' she tells the documentary makers. She was forced to stay in Italy for three weeks after her release and taken back to the site of her captivity by police keen to elicit a shaken response from a woman they were yet to believe. After being cleared to return home, a frenzy of photographers camped outside her mother's house. Persuaded that the only way to get rid of them was to go outside and talk, she stood smiling and delivered a short statement, while dressed in revealing clothing. In the documentary, Page 3 photographer Jeany Savage – who had shot Ayling's Daily Star debut as a 'Surrey sweetie' and 'frilly thriller'– speaks for her detractors: 'She appears in a little white top with her t--s hanging out. I mean, come on!' Ayling, who describes herself online as a 'multiple property owner', is shown relaxing in her rural idyll in Snowdonia. But her mother 'struggles with what's happened', the model says in a voice-over, and 'won't be doing an interview in this film'. Ayling's son, a toddler during the kidnapping, is not even mentioned, nor is her 2018 stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house, or her sideline on adult content subscription website OnlyFans. Nonetheless, Ayling appears to have learnt from her media journey. Unlike her appearances on This Morning or Victoria Derbyshire, in which she was seen in skimpy outfits and with voluminous blow-dried locks, she is interviewed here wearing a mint-green blazer and her hair in a demure bun. She has also learnt something more profound about herself. In the final episode, she is filmed receiving a psychiatric report diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder. 'There are difficulties in social interaction, communication and repetition,' it reads. The diagnosis not only explains her 'lack of expression, no matter how hard I try', but also experiences that date back to childhood: 'My mum would come on school trips,' she recalls, 'because she was worried that I wouldn't be able to say what I wanted.' The case judge, Ilio Mannucci Pacini, says in the programme: 'Interpreting the calm demeanour she showed as a sign of the absence of trauma is, I believe, a mistaken mechanism.' Or, as Ayling puts it more succinctly: 'Not everyone has to fit in the same box.' Chloe Ayling: My Unbelievable Kidnapping is available on BBC iPlayer
Telegraph
7 days ago
- Telegraph
Chloe Ayling was kidnapped to be sold as a sex slave. Then her trauma really began
Chloe Ayling, a glamour model from Coulsdon, south London, was attending what she had been told was a photo shoot for motorcycle leathers in Milan. Upon arriving at the studio in July 2017, she was grabbed by two men in balaclavas, who injected ketamine into her arm and bundled her, gagged, into a holdall in the boot of a car. She was taken to a remote farmhouse where she was handcuffed to a chest of drawers before her agent was sent an email from someone claiming to be a 'mid-high level contract killer' working for an organised crime group that traded in human beings. He was then sent an ultimatum: hand over $300,000 within five days, or the 20-year-old would be auctioned as a sex slave on the dark web. It even included an advert: 'Chloe: Caucasian; 34DD-25-35.' Attached were three photos of her in swimwear lying on the floor. The detective superintendent appointed to lead the case, who chooses to remain anonymous, said: 'I've seen dead people who looked in a far better condition.' Ayling was a victim, first of the 'mid-high level contract killer' who turned out to be Łukasz Herba, a 30-year-old West Midlands-based Polish computer programmer described in court as 'a fantasist with narcissistic tendencies'. And then, after she was freed following six days in captivity, she became a victim of the Italian justice system, which published her name against her wishes, and the British media, which refused to believe the details of the seemingly harebrained plot. As a result, attention and scepticism soon switched to her strangely detached demeanour about the whole affair. 'What is it about me and this story that makes it so hard to believe?' she asks at the opening of each episode of a new three-part BBC documentary, Chloe Ayling: My Unbelievable Kidnapping. The series follows umpteen tabloid stories about the model, appearances on a parade of ITV daytime sofas and a 2024 BBC dramatisation of the tale, Kidnapped. Ayling's difficulty in expressing emotion was one of the key reasons the press and public refused to take her story at face value. 'Too happy, too composed, too relaxed,' summed up broadcaster Eamonn Holmes at the time. But in the documentary, she breaks down in tears as she recalls the harrowing details of her abduction. The man she knew as 'MD' served her a plate of rice cakes while telling her he was an assassin whose favoured method of murder was poisoning: 'No one investigates a heart attack,' he said. He explained that he worked for an organisation called Black Death and that even if he wanted to release her, there were powerful figures above him who would not allow it. Ayling's natural stoicism gave her an extraordinary presence of mind during her ordeal. She calmly spurned Herba's sexual advances, saying she was 'not feeling it' while chained to furniture, but he 'lit up' at discussion of what she might agree to once free. She reveals she 'started talking to him about the future, to lead him on, and make him want to fight to release me'. What Ayling was unaware of was that Black Death was not a far-reaching criminal enterprise, but an invention by Herba, and that he had enlisted the assistance of his brother, Michal, in snatching her from the studio. When Ayling's contacts failed to stump up the $300,000, Herba agreed to release her on condition she said nothing to the police and paid $50,000 within the month. He drove her to the British consulate, posing as a friend she had called upon her release. Neither of them knew that the officials there had been alerted to her abduction, and Herba was promptly arrested. Ayling's evidence helped convict him of kidnapping and extortion, with a prison sentence reduced on appeal to just over 11 years. If that were not vindication enough of Ayling's account, the BBC series features exclusive interviews with the anonymous UK detective, from the Regional Organised Crime Unit, along with three officers from Milan Police and the judge at her kidnapper's trial: all stand by Ayling's version of events, the judge describing her testimony as 'extremely precise, specific and detailed'. Yet, eight years on, suspicion and hostility still stalk Ayling, who says: 'The hate never went away'. It has ranged from a belligerent Piers Morgan on Good Morning Britain to trolls on social media who have continued to post damning remarks such as 'a lying mastermind, dumb but gorgeous'. 'The aftermath definitely affected me more, long-term, than the actual kidnap itself,' she tells the documentary makers. She was forced to stay in Italy for three weeks after her release and taken back to the site of her captivity by police keen to elicit a shaken response from a woman they were yet to believe. After being cleared to return home, a frenzy of photographers camped outside her mother's house. Persuaded that the only way to get rid of them was to go outside and talk, she stood smiling and delivered a short statement, while dressed in revealing clothing. In the documentary, Page 3 photographer Jeany Savage – who had shot Ayling's Daily Star debut as a 'Surrey sweetie' and 'frilly thriller'– speaks for her detractors: 'She appears in a little white top with her t--s hanging out. I mean, come on!' Ayling, who describes herself online as a 'multiple property owner', is shown relaxing in her rural idyll in Snowdonia. But her mother 'struggles with what's happened', the model says in a voice-over, and 'won't be doing an interview in this film'. Ayling's son, a toddler during the kidnapping, is not even mentioned, nor is her 2018 stint in the Celebrity Big Brother house, or her sideline on adult content subscription website OnlyFans. Nonetheless, Ayling appears to have learnt from her media journey. Unlike her appearances on This Morning or Victoria Derbyshire, in which she was seen in skimpy outfits and with voluminous blow-dried locks, she is interviewed here wearing a mint-green blazer and her hair in a demure bun. She has also learnt something more profound about herself. In the final episode, she is filmed receiving a psychiatric report diagnosing Autism Spectrum Disorder. 'There are difficulties in social interaction, communication and repetition,' it reads. The diagnosis not only explains her 'lack of expression, no matter how hard I try', but also experiences that date back to childhood: 'My mum would come on school trips,' she recalls, 'because she was worried that I wouldn't be able to say what I wanted.' The case judge, Ilio Mannucci Pacini, says in the programme: 'Interpreting the calm demeanour she showed as a sign of the absence of trauma is, I believe, a mistaken mechanism.' Or, as Ayling puts it more succinctly: 'Not everyone has to fit in the same box.'
The Sun
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
I was kidnapped by evil gang who drugged me & stuffed me in suitcase… trolls think I made it all up, says Chloe Ayling
A BRITISH model who was drugged and kidnapped in Italy says that people still don't believe her story. Chloe Ayling has been accused by trolls online of staging her own kidnapping, in a horror which she says "never ends". 3 When the model was 21, she was drugged and kidnapped after travelling to Milan, Italy, for a photoshoot. Upon arriving at the "studio" on that day in 2017, she was driven to a remote warehouse in Truin by Lukasz Herba. Herba was a 30-year-old comuter programmer from Oldbury, West Midlands, who held Chloe hostage for a week. He was eventually arrested and jailed for his crime. However, in a new documentary, Chloe revealed that the horror from the kidnapping "never ends". Despite Herba being jailed for kidnapping her, the model revealed that she still faces backlash online for speaking out about his crime. Some trolls even accused her of making the entire story up. Chloe said: "It is always people who don't know the facts, they judge too quickly and jump in before knowing the full story. "You can never get offended by it really because they don't know." The star later appeared on Lorraine to promote the documentary, where she opened up more about how the doubters made her feel. She said: "I thought it would be easy, I am really not good at talking about my feelings. "I had to relive it again and I got emotional about things I hadn't before." On the ITV chat show, she also spoke about how she responded to the backlash. Chloe said: "I was constantly having to talk about his crazy decisions as if they were my own. "It was my calmness that saved me." is your go-to destination for the best celebrity news, real-life stories, jaw-dropping pictures and must-see video. Like us on Facebook at and follow us from our main Twitter account at @TheSun.
BreakingNews.ie
14-07-2025
- Entertainment
- BreakingNews.ie
Documentary ‘to unpack the truth' of Chloe Ayling kidnapping
Model Chloe Ayling has said a new documentary about her kidnapping ordeal 'truly unravels and dives deep' into what happened to her. Chloe Ayling: My Unbelievable Kidnapping is a new three-part documentary series which will see Ayling revisit her time in captivity in 2017 and explore how it continues to shape her life. Advertisement The British glamour model was abducted after arriving at an address in Milan, Italy, for a modelling job. Ayling was held in a farmhouse near Turin while a €300,000 ransom was demanded. Her captors told her she would be sold as a sex slave as part of a dark web auction, but she was eventually able to convince them to let her walk free and into the hands of the local authorities. Polish national Lukasz Herba and his brother, Michal Herba, were subsequently jailed after an Italian court convicted them of kidnapping Ayling. Advertisement But the model faced headlines claiming she had faked her ordeal, and was accused in court of being involved in a publicity stunt to further her modelling career. In her first documentary interview since her abductors' conviction, Ayling recounts in her own words what happened, along with the media reaction and why many people refused to believe her. Ayling said: 'I'm delighted BBC Studios are telling my story – not only in my own words, but also through the voices of those directly involved. 'For years, people have doubted me, often because they don't understand what really happened – or who I am. Advertisement 'I think this documentary truly unravels and dives deep into who I am, the events of the kidnapping, as well as the intense media aftermath that tried to define me. 'I think people will finally see through the headlines.' Executive producer Katharine Patrick said: 'This series enables Chloe to unpack the truth of what happened to her eight years ago, allowing her to process the ordeal she's been through in an honest and unflinching way, and make sense of the person she is now as a result.' The series will air on BBC Three and iPlayer next month. Advertisement
