A Polish man who allegedly kidnapped British model Chloe Ayling to sell her on the ‘dark web’ as a sex slave attempted to sell the story to a tabloid newspaper whilst holding her captive, it emerged.

Lukasz Pawel Herba is accused of being part of a Black Death gang which drugged and kidnapped Chloe Ayling, who had been lured to Milan on the promise of a fashion shoot.

Herba, 30, a Polish national who was living in Oldbury, in the West Midlands, told the 20-year-old glamour model as she was held prisoner in a remote farmhouse that unless her agent paid a ransom of $300,000, she would be sold as a sex slave in the Middle East.