A British model has recounted her relief at escaping a kidnapping, after she was held prisoner in Italy and put up for sale on the dark web.
Chloe Ayling, 25, who was on Celebrity Big Brother in 2018, suffered the traumatic experience the previous year, when she was abducted and drugged by two men in Milan.
Ayling was 20 at the time, and had travelled there for a modelling job. Instead, she was taken hostage and held at a £265,000 ransom in a farmhouse near Turin.
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Speaking on ITV, she recalled: “I walked into the studio and there was just silence.
“Normally someone would greet you at the door but I just didn't hear anything.
“Before I had time to process my thoughts, that's exactly when the masked man put his arm around my neck and mouth... and another one came to the front of me and injected me in my wrists.”
When she woke up, Ayling was in the boot of a car with “tape on my mouth and handcuffs on my feet and my hands”.
The model also saw an empty suitcase in the boot of the car with her, which she assumed her kidnappers planned to put her in.
She was held in the farmhouse near Milan for six days as she tried to convince the men to let her go.
Ayling was released on 17 July at the British consulate in Milan, after telling the kidnappers about her child at home.
Polish national, Lukasz Herba, and his brother, Michal Herba, were subsequently jailed after an Italian court convicted them of kidnapping Ayling.
Ayling’s story will be covered in a six-part BBC series called Kidnapped.
Georgia Lester, who worked on Killing Eve, will cover her time in captivity, and the subsequent court case.
Lester said: “Every moment that I have spent researching this series and spending time with Chloe, learning about the ordeal she suffered both by the men who abducted her and the people who doubted her, has been shocking and infuriating.
“It’s been an honour to work with Chloe and I can’t wait for audiences to finally see her courage, her charm and her unwavering resilience.”
The BBC Three series will begin filming later this year.
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