‘Dark web’ sex slave trial: UK model was drugged, stuffed in suitcase, and readied for auction, police say
New details of the brutal treatment allegedly suffered by Chloe Ayling have emerged at the trial of her alleged abductor
A British model who police say was kidnapped in Italy last summer to be auctioned online as a sex slave suffered physical violence – including being drugged and “brutally transported inside a suitcase,” according to Italian investigators.
Ayling said last summer that her kidnappers were preparing to “auction” her on the dark Web, a part of the internet where user identities are hidden through encryption, allowing them to buy and sell criminal goods. The kidnappers were trying to sell Ayling, 20, on the internet as a sex slave for US$300,000, according to Italian police and media accounts.
I realised I was in the boot of a car, with my wrists and ankles tied and my mouth taped. I was inside a bag, with only a small hole that allowed me to breathe
Ayling told Italian investigators at the time that she was drugged, gagged, bound and stuffed into a duffel bag, then transported in the trunk of a car to a remote farmhouse outside Turin. There, she slept with her hands and feet tied to furniture, the investigators said.
During Herba’s trial Wednesday, investigators said the model was put under “psychological pressures” during the abduction, ANSA reported. Herba was arrested July 17, shortly after freeing Ayling and dropping her off at the British consulate in Milan, police said. British and Italian media reported that the kidnappers freed Ayling after learning she was the mother of a two-year-old boy.
Herba’s brother, Michal Konrad Herba, is also accused in the kidnapping and was arrested in Britain last summer. He is awaiting extradition from England, according to ANSA.
Ayling described the kidnapping in a statement to police last summer, which was published by the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.