Chloe Ayling, the 20-year-old British model who was allegedly drugged and abducted while on what she thought was a photoshoot in Italy, has given her first television interview.
Speaking to the UK‘s This Morning, Ayling relived the experience, at one point tearing up when she described how after seeing a suitcase about her size in the boot of the car, all she hoped for was “a non-painful death”.
She said:
“I woke up in the boot of a car in a zip up bag and tape on my mouth and handcuffs on my feet.”
“It was horrible. I was still drugged but so I didn’t process it automatically but I was trying to shout and find my way out but I didn’t know what was happening.
“The car was moving and the radio was blaring as well so I couldn’t really get the attention so I had to really raise my voice like ‘driver, driver, where are we’, and it took a while for them to actually pull over the car and come round the back and then I was still asking questions.
“When they pulled over I saw through the gap that they’d put an empty suitcase above it and at that point I thought I was going to die because what other reason would they put an empty suitcase about my size in there.
“I was hoping for a non-painful death.”
She was allegedly kidnapped by a gang calling themselves Black Death, who were planning to sell her into sex slavery. Her captor sent ransom emails to Ayling’s modelling agent and wealthy contacts, but after six days – and discovering she had a two-year-old child – he delivered her to the British Consulate in Milan on the promise that she would send £39,000 (AU $64,24o) within one month of her release.
Lukasz Pawel Herba, 30, has been arrested and charged with kidnapping and extortion.
Ayling’s story has been met by disbelief by some people – which she has described as “frustrating and hurtful” – and this interview was no exception.
she doesn’t look like someone who’s been kidnapped. She has lies written all over her ..claim to fame #ThisMorning
— NicolaLambX (@Nicolalalamb_x) August 14, 2017
I don’t know if the story is genuine or not but every time I see Chloe Ayling I think ‘publicity stunt’ #ThisMorning
— 🇬🇧 Kevin Chatfield 🏴 (@KevinC73346538) August 14, 2017
Considering she’s been drugged and kidnapped, this girls surprisingly chirpy and smiley about the ordeal. 🤔 #ThisMorning
— Nicola Gadsdon (@NicolaGadsdon) August 14, 2017
During this interview, she addressed those people, saying that her calm demeanour was how how she is “as a person. I try to be as strong as possible.”
“I was in Italy for three weeks before I came home to the UK, what people didn’t witness was me crying almost every day, me being too paranoid to leave my room. Any noises I hear I would freak out, having nightmares.
“No one here witnessed that. I only started to get more reassured as it came to the end of the three week period when police were trying to reassure me they knew the truth of the story and I didn’t need to be fearful when I return to the UK.”
You can watch the interview below.
Today we spoke to Chloe Ayling, who revealed the truth about her kidnapping pic.twitter.com/v8Qlx3hqMi
— This Morning (@thismorning) August 14, 2017
