It sounds like the premise of a film, but a British model has said she is lucky to have made it out alive after being kidnapped and put up for sale on the dark web.
Chloe Ayling went on to star on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018, but the former glamour model originally made international headlines after her terrifying ordeal the previous year.
Excited for her latest photoshoot, the mum-of-one travelled to Milan after Chloe’s agent had organised the work trip.
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Despite the luxurious shoot being organised officially, her agent had unwittingly been speaking to Lukasz Herba who eventually kidnapped the-then 20-year-old model.
Posing as ‘Andre Lazio’, he lured Chloe to a studio in the Italian city where he lay in wait for her.
As she entered, she was greeted with a chilling silence, which is when two men pounced on her as she entered.
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"Before I had time to process my thoughts, that's exactly when the masked man put his arm around my neck and mouth... and another one came to the front of me and injected me in my wrists," she recalled on This Morning after returning to the UK.
It was long before they made their getaway, with Chloe trapped in the boot of a car in a zip-up bag, unable to move – having been drugged.
"I had tape on my mouth and handcuffs on my feet and my hands," she bravely told viewers, as she explained how she was held captive for six days in a nearby farmhouse.
During this time, the two men threatened to sell her as a sex slave on the dark web if they were not paid €300,000 ($324,500), and even revealed that there’d been ‘huge interest’ in her sale during the sickening ordeal.
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She told the Guardian: "If you just refuse to do anything they say, most people wouldn’t come out alive."
Thankfully, the former Celebrity Big Brother contestant was able to convince the men to let her go after explaining that she had a young child waiting for her at home.
Shortly after this, her kidnapper brought her to the Milan consulate.
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Herba was eventually convicted initially being given a 16-year prison sentence. But shockingly though, it was later reduced to just five years and eight months.
Chloe also faced accusations that she faked the kidnapping, despite the man behind her ordeal being brought to justice for the crime.
Now, the model and TV personality is the inspiration for a new drama based on her horrific ordeal, with Chloe supporting the production of the BBC Three series.
As the news was announced, she said: “I am excited that BBC Studios are telling my story and that 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.”
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She added: "Georgia Lester and the team have been incredibly supportive in our conversations, and I couldn’t be happier that they are making this series."
Topics: Travel, Celebrity, Entertainment, Celebrity Big Brother, True Crime, Crime
Katherine Sidnell