Drugged and kidnapped mannequin says folks nonetheless name her a liar years on

Model Chloe Ayling was kidnapped after being lured to a pretend photograph shoot in Milan. She was launched six days later, however her ordeal was removed from over – seven years on, she continues to be being referred to as a liar.

“Headlines really stick in people’s minds, even years later,” Ms Ayling tells the Daily News, explaining that she nonetheless receives on-line abuse from folks questioning her account.

Her story is being instructed in a brand new six-part Daily News sequence, Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story. The sequence, which follows Chloe’s expertise being kidnapped and the media storm that adopted, is predicated on police interviews, courtroom transcripts and private accounts – with some scenes created for dramatic functions.

Ms Ayling confronted years of doubts about her ordeal with folks accusing her of faking her abduction, benefiting from it and being concerned in a publicity stunt.

But she’s since labored with the drama’s author Georgia Lester and producers to inform her story.

“All I wanted was [the] facts to be laid out and everyone to know what actually happened,” Ms Ayling says.

She hopes her expertise will assist others. “This should be a lesson for people not to judge victims based on the way they act or react,” she provides.

Ms Ayling’s ordeal started in July 2017 when she was lured from London to Italy on the promise of a photograph shoot by Lukasz Herba, who drugged her and took her to a distant farmhouse in a holdall bag.

Lukasz Herba stated she could be bought on-line if she couldn’t present a $300,000 (roughly £230,000) ransom price. He launched her to the British consulate in Milan six days later.

When Ms Ayling, then 20 years outdated, returned to the UK she got here below fireplace – she was accused of posing for the cameras and smiling.

Finding herself on the centre of a lot media consideration, Ms Ayling remembers: “It was just so big and overpowering.

“It was blown out of proportion, there have been issues that have been missed out and it was moving into a route that was not true.”

On the topic of smiling when she arrived home from Italy, Ms Ayling says: “That was genuinely how I used to be feeling on the time. I used to be joyful to be dwelling. I used to be joyful this was over, so why should not I be smiling?”

Even after Lukasz Herba, a Polish national, was jailed for 16 years and nine months for her kidnapping, people continued to accuse her of not telling the truth.

Ms Ayling feels her work as a model contributed to how she was treated: “I do consider if my job was totally different, it would not be the identical response,” adding that the way a victim dresses, acts or shows emotion shouldn’t be a reason not to believe them.

After her kidnapping, Ms Ayling published a book and appeared as a contestant on Celebrity Big Brother.

Despite the backlash she received, she wouldn’t change anything about how she behaved, she says.

“I used to be true to myself and did what I would like[ed] to do, so I haven’t got any regrets.”

The BBC drama comes as her kidnapper’s brother, Michal Herba, who was also involved in Ms Ayling’s abduction, has been released from prison. He was sentenced to 16 years and eight months in prison but had his sentence reduced after an appeal.

“I believe he ought to have been in jail for lots longer,” Ms Ayling says of Michal Herba.

“The indisputable fact that they nonetheless do not take accountability and nonetheless wish to make lies and never be chargeable for what they did [is] much more annoying,” she adds.

Now, years on from her abduction, Ms Ayling is trying to put what happened behind her.

“I do not get flashbacks or something like that,” she says, but in making this drama the 27-year-old had to relive the experience.

“I [had] to place myself again in that place to recollect key particulars and the way I felt on the time,” she says.

The series writer, Georgia Lester – who has also worked on dramas Killing Eve and Skins – says: “I believe the broader story right here is about how we deal with victims, particularly girls.”

She provides: “It looks like a well timed and necessary drama.”

In July, the National Police Chiefs’ Council outlined the scale of violence against women and girls across the nation in a report – and the body estimates that one in every 12 women will be a victim of violence every year.

Amanda Rowe, the lead for violence against women and girls at the Independent Office for Police Conduct, acknowledges some people “shouldn’t have a superb expertise” when it comes to reporting violence against women and girls.

“Fear of being made to really feel chargeable for what has occurred to them can put folks off reporting these crimes,” she says.

Ms Lester says she was enraged to learn how Ms Ayling had been treated following her kidnapping. She hopes the BBC drama “encourages folks to consider girls” and that it will “vindicate” Ms Ayling in “the eyes of people that judged her”.

Ms Ayling provides: “I would like the world to know that what I’m saying is true.”

You can watch Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story on Daily News iPlayer on Wednesday 14 August.

Additional reporting by Sabrina Fearon-Melville.