Man who kidnapped British model Chloe Ayling in Italy jailed for 16 years

Sentence comes nearly a year after young mother's ordeal took place

A man has been convicted of kidnapping the British model Chloe Ayling in Italy, and jailed for more than 16 years.

Ms Ayling was said to have been drugged and kidnapped in Milan after arriving for a modelling job in July 2017.

She was then held for nearly a week at a farmhouse in Piedmont, a neighbouring region, before she was released to the British consulate in Milan.

Lukasz Herba, 30, from Poland, who was jailed for 16 years and nine months by an Italian court on Monday, had claimed she went along with the kidnapping as a ruse to improve her career.

In court he said he had invented a group he presented as being behind deep-web auctions of women on encrypted sites.

Ms Ayling’s lawyer, Francesco Pesce, said it was “quite an important verdict” and added he would seek £440,000 compensation in a separate hearing.

Prosecutors said Ms Ayling had been drugged with ketamine and put in a canvas bag for transport to the farmhouse.

Herba said he had been in love with Ms Ayling, and they had concocted the kidnap plot to help her overcome financial difficulties after the birth of her son.

“I never hurt the girl. I was not violent with her,” Herba said. ‘’If she felt forced verbally in any way, I am very sorry. But it certainly was not as Chloe has described."

He added: ‘’I was in love and I was hoping that once her fame took off that she would repay me with feelings and we would share the money.”

Previous testimony showed that the two had met on Facebook and had met at least once in person before her pregnancy.

In his initial statement to police, Herba said he released the model out of sympathy for the fact she was a mother.

Ms Ayling told investigators that she never tried to escape, even when she accompanied Herba into a store to buy shoes, because she was terrified, believing his threats that he was part of a bigger criminal gang that had eyes on her constantly.

She said she had been told that she would be auctioned off online since she was not able to come up with £264,000 the criminal “Black Death” group was seeking. She said Herba showed her photos of other women who were reportedly being sold over the deep web.

But in his shifting storyline, Herba also testified previously that he had concocted the alleged criminal group and that his brother was helping him in the scheme agreed to by Ms Ayling.

Italian prosecutors are seeking the brother’s extradition from Britain.

Herba said he did not tell police that Ms Ayling was in on the scheme during his initial statements because he believed she would come forward herself and defend him.

During closing arguments, his lawyer, Katia Kolakowska, cited an email she received from a US film producer, who pointed out that Ms Ayling’s story closely matches the plot of a movie entitled By Any Means, that was released about eight weeks before the 2017 kidnapping.

After the verdict, Ms Kolakowska expressed disappointment that the court did not take into account that Ms Ayling emerged from the ordeal unharmed, which would have limited the sentence to between one and eight years. She said she would appeal.

Prosecutor Paolo Storari, in his closing arguments, noted that Herba had invested at least £8,800 in the kidnapping, taking into account real estate rentals and travel. He said it was unrealistic that Herba would have done so only to get ransom from a young woman without any means.

The prosecutor also cited Herba’s purchase of two ski masks, which Ms Ayling said she saw kidnappers wearing when she was freed from the canvas bag, and a note to his brother telling him to clean the boot of the car well to make sure that there were no traces of her hair.

In an interview last autumn Ms Ayling, then 20, defended having made money from television appearances and a book deal following her kidnapping.

“I am not with an agent, so I have to do something in the meantime,” she said on Good Morning Britain in October.

Herba denied guilt.

Additional reporting by agencies