Questions are being raised about the British model who says she was kidnapped by men in Italy attempting to sell her off as a sex slave.
Chloe Ayling was allegedly taken hostage by an online group which lured her to Milan on the premise of a modelling contract.
The 20-year-old told media she was attacked, drugged, abducted and stuffed inside a suitcase in the boot of a car, driven to a rural home in a hamlet outside Turin and held for six days before being released.
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But it's now emerged that Ms Ayling was taken shoe shopping by one of her captors during the kidnapping.
Australia's 7 News claims he bought her new underwear every day and shared her bed.
That man, 30-year-old Polish citizen Lukasz Pawel Herba, has been arrested by Italian police.
But the authorities now consider Herba to be a fantasist, and it's unclear whether the gang he says he belongs to actually exists.
Ms Ayling says the group took explicit photos of her to post on the dark web to attract bidders, but after several days realised that she was a young mother.
That violated the rules of the group, so they eventually released her.
Now Ms Ayling's held a press conference outside her mother's home in South London, where she read out a statement to media and didn't take questions.
"I have been through a terrifying experience, I feared for my life second by second, minute by minute, hour by hour."
"I'm incredibly grateful to the Italian and UK authorities for all they have done to secure my safe release."
"I have just arrived home after four weeks and haven't had time to collect my thoughts. I am not at liberty to say anything further until I have been debriefed by the UK police."
The Daily Mail is reporting that Ms Ayling knew her kidnapper from a previous trip to Paris.
Newshub.
