Chloe Ayling: 'Abducted' model's full statement to police on Milan kidnapping claim

20-year-old claims she was grabbed by gloved hand and injected with sedative 

Lucy Pasha-Robinson
Thursday 10 August 2017 14:31 BST
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Italian prosecutors have said they believe the model was kidnapped and 'don’t see any inconsistencies in the story'
Italian prosecutors have said they believe the model was kidnapped and 'don’t see any inconsistencies in the story'

A British model who claims she was kidnapped in Milan has detailed her ordeal in a police statement.

Chloe Ayling claims she was held captive for almost a week after being lured to Italy for what she was told was a photo shoot.

Her alleged captor, Lukasz Pawel Herba, reportedly drugged her and placed her in a large suitcase in a car boot.

Now fresh details of the 20-year-old's account have come to light from a translated transcript of an interview with Italian police.

While some people have raised doubts about her story, her lawyer, Francesco Pesce, said investigators believed her claims.

Italian prosecutors said they believe the model was kidnapped and “don’t see any inconsistencies in the story”.

The interview, translated by the MirrorOnline, recounts the moment the model claims she was grabbed by a gloved hand from behind and injected with a sedative.

The mother-of-one also told how she was transported in the boot of a car, after being stripped down to her underwear and socks.

Read the statement in full:

The door to the studio was closed and before I entered a person from behind put a hand on my neck and one on my mouth stopping me from screaming.

Both hands had black gloves. A second person, who also came from behind, (came round to) face me.

The second man had a balaclava on, so I could only see his eyes through two holes and his mouth.

The man behind me continued to restrain me, forcing me to lift my face (up), while the one in front gave me an injection in my right arm.

I don't know how he got to my arm because I was wearing a long sleeve leather jacket.

I felt like I didn't have enough air because the man holding me from behind was stopping me from breathing.

When they injected me, my arm was uncovered. Maybe they had taken off my jacket, but I don't remember.

The attack happened in front of the door of the studio, in a narrow stretch of corridor.

In the circumstances, I lost lucidity. I don't know whether as a result of lack of air or the injection.

Then I lost consciousness, because when I came around I was only wearing my Chenille pink body and the socks I am wearing now.

I realised I was in the boot of a car. Someone had taken off my jacket, my jeans.

The total number of people who participated in harming me up until this morning when I came to the consulate is five.

From when I was kidnapped to when I was freed today I have only seen the faces of two people.

One of these is the guy who came to the consulate this morning, and who in the first instance, I did not identify as one of those responsible in front of consulate (staff) and the police.

Under those circumstances, I told those present, that once I had become free I stopped a passerby to use their phone to call the only person I knew in Italy and whose number I knew (off) by heart.

I provided this version of events only out of fear of revenge.

The man who was with me at the consulate - after my kidnapping at the studio and after two men took me to an apartment by car - was the only one who held me prisoner for the entire duration of my kidnapping, who watched over me, stopped me from going out or escaping, threatening me that they would kill me if I did so.

Chloe Ayling, 20, was attacked by two men as she attended an arranged photo shoot in Italy (Chloe Ayling/Facebook)

From the moment I was kidnapped and held in the flat, the man who today took me to the consulate took off my handcuffs and the tape from my mouth, leaving just the handcuffs (attached to) my ankles which held me to a bedside table preventing me from moving freely or (any) possibility of escaping.

The place where they held me was an apartment with two rooms. I was forced to stay on the floor of one in a sleeping bag.

As I said, when I regained consciousness, I got the impression of being in the boot of a car.

I realised someone had put cuffs on my wrists and ankles. On my mouth there was tape.

They had put me in a bag closed with a zip. There was only a little hole allowing me to breathe.

I tried to open the hole. The boot was the kind where you have access from the front of the car but there is a cover (which) when closed stops you from seeing (its) contents from (the) outside.

(While) trying to open the bag, I put my hands outside the bag making the cover move and attracting (the) attention of (the) kidnappers.

The car stopped, two people got out and opened the boot.

I briefly saw the face of one of them, the driver. I didn't see the face of the second person.

The driver is not the man who brought me to the consulate.

They forced me to put my hands (inside) the bag and closed it. Neither spoke to me.

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