Francesco Pesce says Briton subjected to tremendous ordeal and describes suggestions of her collaboration as evil

The lawyer for a British model allegedly abducted in Milan by kidnappers who tried to auction her online has said any doubts about her story have been dismissed.

Chloe Ayling told Italian police she was attacked by two men as she attended a photoshoot last month, drugged and transported in a bag to Borgial, an isolated village near Turin.

The 20-year-old’s captor allegedly wanted to auction her as a sex slave online but released her after six days and took her to the British consulate in Milan.



It has emerged that Ayling, from south London, went shopping for groceries and shoes with her captor, prompting questions about the degree of coercion she was under, and whether the pair may have collaborated in a fake kidnapping.

But her lawyer, Francesco Pesce, said she was scared to resist any of her abductor’s wishes, particularly as she believed there were other members of a gang involved who would harm her if she tried to escape.

“There were legitimate doubts [about her story] at the start, which were surpassed,” Pesce told the Guardian. “What Chloe told police during 10 hours, it wasn’t easy on her. If the police were convinced [of the story] after that, then I am convinced. What also would be his [the abductor’s] motive [to collaborate]? Twenty years in jail?”

He said Ayling initially had her wrists and ankles tied but was later unbound and taken shopping. Pesce said the model was told she was to be sold to the Middle East for sex. Pesce added that she had repeated her story multiple times, to police and before a judge.

“I heard people doubting her and implying that she was somehow involved in this case, that she was somehow involved in this because it was too easy an escape and that I really can’t believe, that people think that about Chloe Ayling,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, describing the suggestions as evil. “She was subjected to a tremendous ordeal and she suffered so much.”

Lukasz Pawel Herba, 30, was arrested after he took Ayling to the British consulate. Herba, a Polish national who lives in Britain, allegedly planned to sell her for more than £230,000 and demanded a ransom from her agent.

A police spokesman refused to say whether they were investigating a collaboration between Herba and Ayling.



“It’s a very delicate investigation and we can’t say anything. We are investigating a crime,” he said. “Everything will be communicated in an official way.”

In her statement, Ayling said she had previously met her captor in April, when she was in Milan for another photoshoot. Identifying himself as “Andre”, he informed her the shoot had been cancelled and accompanied her in a taxi to the airport.

Doubts have also been cast on Herba’s version of events, which has changed. Officers were quoted by local media as describing him as a “dangerous person with traces of mythomania”.

Herba reportedly handed Ayling a business card of a gang called Black Death, which he claimed to be part of, and asked her to publicise the group when he let her go.

Lorenzo Bucossi, a Milan police official, has said officers were investigating whether Herba was operating as part of a gang or had made it up.

Herba told police he had leukaemia and, desperate for money to cure himself, came into contact with a group of Romanians in Birmingham whogave him £500,000 to rent premises in a number of places including Milan, ostensibly for the storage of clothing.

He told the police he heard about Ayling being kept at the property in Borgial, which he said he rented before coming to Italy. He said there were two Romanians there when he arrived, who asked him to stay there with her.

“The Romanians told me [via email] I could let her go [because she was a mother of two, which was against the group’s rules],” Herba told police. “I took her to the consulate to make sure she was safe.”

Europol said it only has one mention of a gang named Black Death on its database, and that this does not necessarily suggest it exists.



Police in Italy say they are looking for at least one accomplice, thought to be Herba’s brother Mikail, although they have refused to confirm the identity of that person.