Model who was kidnapped and drugged nonetheless will get referred to as a liar, years on

A model who was drugged and kidnapped while on a photoshoot admitted people still don’t believe her years later.

Chloe Ayling is the feature in a six-part factual drama series produced by the BBC which details her traumatic experience. Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story will follow Chloe’s traumatic experience in 2017 which saw her lured to Italy on the promise of a model photo shoot.

Lukasz Herba was convicted of kidnapping the model on June 11 2018 and sentences to 16 years and nine months in Italy. At the time he claimed to be part of the Black Death Group who are notorious for a network of kidnapping and people trafficking.

READ MORE: Marine captured three times in three years reveals what it’s really like to be held hostage

Click for more of the latest news from the Daily Star

The group has been rumoured for years, but Ayling’s kidnapping, which took place in Milan, is the only case that appears to be connected to the group. Herba said he was an assassin in the group. Ayling, glamour model and mother of one, was lured to Milan by Lukasz who claimed to be a photographer. She believed she would be the centre of a photoshoot after the pair had exchanged several messages.

She was drugged while on the fake shoot and taken to a quiet farmhouse in a holdall bag, but released six days later. While held captive, Herba told Ayling he would sell her online if she could not provide $300,000 (£230,000). At the time, Ayling was accused of faking the incident for popularity, a point of view which she claims still follows her today.

“Headlines really stick in people’s minds, even years later,” she told the BBC. “All I wanted was [the] facts to be laid out and everyone to know what actually happened.”

Ayling hopes her opening up will put the incessant messages and accusations to bed and she can move on with her life. “This should be a lesson for people not to judge victims based on the way they act or react.”

The model smiled and posed in front of cameras upon her return, which led to accusations of falseness. “It was just so big and overpowering,” she explained.

“It was blown out of proportion, there were things that were missed out and it was going in a direction that was not true. That was genuinely how I was feeling at the time. I was happy to be home. I was happy this was over, so why shouldn’t I be smiling?”

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.