The alleged kidnapping of British model Chloe Ayling in Italy has become more complicated after it was revealed that she was seen shopping with her alleged captor during the period she was supposedly being held hostage.



Ayling's Italian attorney, Francesco Pesce, told reporters that the 20-year-old woman feared for her life and went on the shopping trip after deciding it would be better to cooperate with her captor.

"She thought the best idea was to go along with it and be nice to her captor," Pesce told the BBC. "He told her he wanted to release her somehow and some time."

Ayling originally told Italian police that she had traveled to Italy for what she assumed was a photo shoot, but was then kidnapped, drugged, and hidden in a suitcase to be sold online to the highest bidder, authorities said.

She was released on July 17 after her captors discovered she had a two-year-old child, she told police. She was dropped off at the British consulate in Milan, where a suspect was arrested.

Ayling broke down on the second day of questioning after Italian authorities showed her a statement from a salesperson who said she had sold the model shoes while she was with the suspect on the day before she was released, according to court documents obtained by the Associated Press.

According to the documents, Ayling said through tears that she didn't have a "reasonable explanation" for going shopping with the suspect, but had considered it a possible way to escape.

Ayling said she went to an apartment in Italy where she believed the scheduled photo shoot would take place, but instead was attacked by multiple men and drugged, before being put in a suitcase and tossed in the back of a car, police said.



“I think I lost consciousness," she said in a statement given to the Telegraph. "When I woke up I was wearing a pink bodysuit and the socks I’m in now. I realized I was in the boot of a car, with my wrists and ankles tied and my mouth taped. I was inside a bag, with only a small hole that allowed me to breathe.”