'Why didn't she ask for help?' Residents of the Italian Alpine village where British model Chloe Ayling was 'held hostage' question her story
- Residents of quiet Borgial where Chloe Ayling was taken are asking questions
- The villagers believed the pair were dating and didn't think anything was odd
- They have questioned why she didn't ask anyone for help while she was held
- Ms Ayling said she was held for six days after being kidnapped in Milan
Chloe Ayling, 20, was kidnapped and held for six days in Italy
Villagers in the Italian Alpines where Chloe Ayling was held hostage have questioned why the model didn't ask for help.
Residents of quiet Borgial where just a handful of homes lie, say they thought the model and Lukasz Herba were a couple when she arrived with him last month.
They have also claimed they saw Herba walk around on his own, getting pizza from a local takeaway, and questioned 'what kind of kidnap' it was when the victim was walking through the village.
Cesare Prati who rented the white house to Mr Herba for €300 for 20 days, told iNews: 'The whole affair seems strange – I heard from friends she was going round the village. What kind of kidnap is that?
'In Viu there’s police and carabinieri, it’s full of people. Why didn’t she ask for help, I don’t understand.'
One investigator said that the model thought Herba was the one who would free her, so she continued to trust him, but admitted there were holes in her story.
Police investigating the crime have revealed the kidnappers asked three men for money for the model's release.
The Sun reports that celebrity agent Dave Read, 50, former Loaded magazine publisher Paul Baxendale Walker, 53, and investment banker Rory McCarthy, were all asked for ransom, but it's understood nobody paid.
Miss Ayling told police in Milan that Herba ordered her to find three friends willing to pay the ransom, the paper reports.
The village of Borgial and the house where Ms Ayling was taken after she claimed to have been kidnapped
The model's story has been questioned by the villagers where she was taken to, as they ask why she didn't ask for help
Mr Read told the Mirror: 'I met Chloe in the past on modelling shoots and through one of my clients who is a friend of hers.
'Three weeks ago I was contacted by the Met Police who explained an email had been sent from her kidnapper to her model agency, in which I was named as someone who might help. I told the police everything I knew, which was not much.'
Earlier this week the MailOnline revealed the model went shoe shopping with her abductor.
Ms Ayling had also previously met her kidnapper, Polish odd-job man Lukasz Herba, during a business trip to Paris earlier this year, a friend has revealed.
Herba, 30, later paid her agent cash for the 20-year-old model to fly out to Milan for the fake photo-shoot where she was injected with horse-tranquilizer ketamine, forced into a suitcase and chained to furniture for six days.
She was finally released on July 15 when Herba accompanied her to the British consulate in Milan after claiming the Black Death white slavery gang had kidnapped her by mistake because she was a mother.
A close friend of Miss Ayling told MailOnline: 'I can't say too much because Chloe is being debriefed by British police and the Foreign Office, but she did know the man who kidnapped her.
'She met him in April on a photo shoot she had been on in Paris.
'He then called her agency and booked her for the photo shoot in Milan. He specifically asked for her.
'He seemed genuine. He sent previous examples of his work and paid in advance.'
The source added: 'During the kidnapping Chloe lost her shoes. He took her to buy some new ones during her ordeal.'
Ms Ayling shared this picture when she got to Milan, before her horrific ordeal, where she says she was drugged
The doting mother is pictured with her son - the reason she was freed - and the boy's father
The model claimed she was lured to a fake photoshoot and ambushed by two men. She said she dropped her phone and wallet and couldn’t breathe when one of her kidnappers, wearing black gloves, grabbed her neck from behind and put his other hand over her mouth to stop her screaming.
One of them injected her with the horse tranquilizer ketamine moments before she stepped into the photographic studio in Milan, she added.
In an extraordinary 3,500 word statement made to Italian Police and obtained by MailOnline, Miss Ayling said: ‘When I entered the studio I had in my right hand my wallet and iPhone, and with the other I was pulling my luggage.
‘The door closed and before I could go in, a person from behind put a hand on my neck and one over my mouth, keeping me from screaming. On both hands the person wore black gloves.
‘Another person came from behind me [and] put himself in front of me facing me.
‘This second person had a black ski mask [on] that allowed a person to only see the eyes and the mouth. He was of average height, athletic build, muscular, and he also was wearing black gloves. He wore dark clothing with long sleeves.
Ms Ayling allegedly slept in the same bed as her kidnapper and told him she would have sex with him once the ordeal was over
The model, pictured outside her home in Coulsdon, left, said she was held for six days. Right, the advert posted to the Dark Web for her
She said she was lured to a fake photoshoot and ambushed by two men when she arrived
‘The man behind me kept holding me forcing me to keep my head up, while the one in front of me injected me in the front forearm.
‘I don’t remember how he was able to uncover my arm, considering that when I entered the place I had on a waist [length] leather jacket with long sleeves that was pink.
‘In the meantime I felt like I was not getting enough air because the guy behind me was preventing me from breathing adequately.
‘Neither of them said anything to me, nor did they speak to one another.'
Herba chained the young model to furniture and demanded a £270,000 ransom for her release – and threatened to sell her as a sex slave to the Russian mafia.
Miss Ayling told police she fended off his advances by promising Herba to have sex with him she her ordeal was over.
Herba denies the offences and will appear in court in Milan in September.
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