A man on trial for allegedly
abducting British model Chloe Ayling with the intention of
auctioning her off as a sex slave on the dark web on Wednesday
told his trial that she had been cahoots with him in a bid for
money and fame.
"She was in it with me, she agreed to my proposal to stage a
fake kidnapping, because she wanted popularity and we were going
to split the money," Lucasz Herba told a Milan court.
He also said he and Ayling wrote the ransom demand together,
putting her phot on it.
Herba, a Pole from Brimingham who is in jail in Milan,
withdrew previous testimony blaming the kidnapping on purported
"Romanians".
The kidnapping was said to have been conducted with Herba's
brother, Michal Konrad Herba, who is in the UK while awaiting
extradition.
Ayling on Monday walked investigators through moments during
her alleged kidnapping in Milan during a video that was shown at
the trial.
The model has said that the two had threatened to sell her in
an online auction on the 'deep web' before they eventually
released her, allegedly when they found out that she was the
mother of a small child.
The video was shown at the Court of Assizes and includes
scenes of the model filmed by investigators in which she enters
the flat on Milan's Via Bianconi, where she was allegedly lured
on the pretext of a photographic shoot, beaten, drugged and
kidnapped.
On August 5, Ayling returned with the police to the place
where she had been held, saying that "I slept in this bed on one
side, with Lucasz on the other".
According to the investigation by prosecutor Paolo Storari,
the 20-year-old model was held hostage from July 11 to July 17,
first in the Milan flat and then in a remote cabin in the Turin
province.
She was eventually freed by Herba himself, who investigators
have called an "adventurous mythomaniac" who wanted to earn a
reputation on the 'deep web'.
The two brothers allegedly initially demanded 300,000 euros
from her family and agent prior to reducing this to $50,000.
In the police video, the model is seen entering the flat on
Via Bianconi and explaining to them that "just as I was about to
open this door I was taken from behind, kidnapped".
Then there are images of the young woman as she walks through
the town of Viu' in the Turin province and shows the police
where she had gone to buy some fruit and a pair of shoes, and
then she burst into sobs - according to a policeman who was
there - prior to entering the cabin, where she then spoke about
some of the details of the kidnapping.
"I was allowed to use this bathroom," she said, "here,
instead, I slept on one side of the bed."
The policeman who was with her showed the judges photographs
taken on July 17, 2017, when the police entered the flat during
an investigation to find the young woman.
The photos showed a piece of paper left by the kidnappers
with "11 men in long gowns and the writing 'Black Death Group -
Chloe'", along with the girl's clothes.
The Black Death Group is an organization alleged to be
operating on the dark web.
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