CHLOE AYLING HOSTAGE HORROR

JUST WHEN THE MODEL THOUGHT THE WORST WAS OVER, A NEW NIGHTMARE BEGAN

- Kylie Walters

What seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime quickly turned into something more sinister when Londoner Chloe Ayling packed her bags to head to Italy for what she believed was a photo shoot in Milan for motorcycle leathers. Instead, she was snatched upon her arrival, injected with ketamine and forced into the boot of a car, then driven to a remote farmhouse and held captive for six days in 2017.

"What is it about me and this story that makes it so hard to believe?" the 27-year-old asked at the start of a new three-part BBC documentary, Chloe Ayling: My Unbelievable Kidnapping, which explores her brutal abduction and its cruel aftermath.

Photographs of the glamour model, then 20, lying unconscious in swimwear were sent to her manager, along with a demand for cash for her return. She would be "auctioned" as a sex slave, the kidnapper threatened, if he wasn't sent more than $500,000.