A video showing a British glamour model taking investigators back to the cottage where she claims she was held captive, has been played to an Italian during the trial of her alleged kidnapper.
Chloe Ayling claims she was kidnapped and by Polish brothers Lukasz and Michal Herba, while the brothers say Ayling was complicity in the kidnap as part of a publicity stunt to boost her career.
In the video, Ayling, can be herd telling investigators she is afraid to return to the building, saying ‘Oh My God’ as she nervously approaches the property in the remote hamlet of Borgial, about 60 miles from Turin.
‘This is where I would sleep’: Chloe Ayling shows Italian prosecutors around the farmhouse where she claims she was held captive for nearly a week
Determined: The video, which was shown in court, sees the British glamour model walk up to the house outside Turin in Italy
Crime scene specialist Gianluca Simontacchi is heard telling Ayling that she has to return to help in the investigation, and Ayling strides up a grassy slope to the building.
Once inside, Ayling points out a double bed where she slept alongside Lukasz Herba, who claimed to be a member of ‘Black Death’ – a criminal organisation that operates on the dark web.
‘This is where I slept,’ says Ayling pointing to the right side of the bed and adding: ‘He slept there.’
Ayling, dressed in a low cut grey top and short denim skirt, was accompanied by a translator for the visit.
She wore blue forensic gloves as she toured the building, pointing to the stone floor where she slept for one night in a sleeping bag.
Giving evidence: Chloe Ayling appears in a video shown to the court in Milan in which she visits the house near Turin where she claims she was held
Accused: Lukasz Herba is accused of kidnapping Chloe Ayling and stands trial in Milan this week while his older brother Michal is awaiting extradition in Britain
Not present: The British glamour model from South London will not appear during the trial, apart from in pre-recorded interviews
Earlier today, photos from the Milan studio where she claims to have kidnapped from were shown to the court.
One of the photographs featured an advert bearing Ayling’s name, found on the floor at the studio where the model had been lured with the promise of an assignment.
The model’s trainers and discarded clothing, including her jeans and leather jacket, were scattered on the floor.
Her smartphone and silver wallet containing credit cards were also shown as part of a collection of crime scene photos.
Another photo shown to the judge and jury was that of Ayling’s black carry-on suitcase with her wallet left on top.
Herba looked on impassively as the video and crime scene photos were shown in court.
Prosecutors have claimed Herba, who may be jailed for up to 25 years if found guilty, had planned to sell Ayling as a sex slave on the dark web.
After the alleged abduction, Herba called Ayling’s agent Phil Green and demanded a £230,000 ransom, warning Green that he was a killer and a member of Black Death.
Ayling claims he later decided to let her go without the ransom, after finding out she was the mother of a two-year-old boy.
Herba’s brother Michal is in jail in Britain awaiting extradition to stand trial on kidnap charges.
Taken: Prosecutors claim Ayling was kidnapped by the Herba brothers and that the younger of the two had planned on selling her on the dark web as a sex slave
Giving them the tour: Ayling is seen showing the prosecutors around the house in the video
Presented in court: These handcuffs were reportedly used on Ayling by the Herba brothers
Ayling will not give evidence at the trial, as the Italian court has decided not called her as a witness and will rely on hours of taped interviews.
During proceedings, a police forensic scientist told the court traces of the drug Ketamin were found in hair samples taken from Ayling after she was released.
They also found a needle mark on her hand that was not visible to the naked eye.
Photographs of Ayling that appeared online also showed her with dilated pupils and her appearance was consistent with being drugged, the court heard.
A witness giving evidence in court later cast doubt on Ayling’s story, saying he saw the model and Lukasz Herba together several times in one day and thought they were boyfriend and girlfriend.
Pietro Pellegrino, who lives in Borgial where Ayling was held for six days, said he saw the pair together in a Volvo car and Herba appeared to be holding her hand.
He told the court Herba has always been very kind when they saw each other in the remote hamlet and smiled and said hello.
Taken: Glamour model Chloe Ayling claims she was kidnapped by the Herba brothers after being lured to Milan on a fake photoshoot job
Advertisement: An advert bearing Chloe Ayling’s name and the name of the Black Death group which Herba claimed to be associated with was found on the floor
In an interview broadcast by the ’60 Minutes’ show this week, Ayling dismissed the claims that she had conceived a publicity stunt to boost her career, but said she understood why people doubted her story.
Asked if she is offended there are people who suspect she masterminded the whole thing and made the story up, she told interviewer Liam Bartlett: ‘It doesn’t offend me, no.’
She added: ‘Because I get it, there are people just picking parts of the story … So I see why people have doubts, because if it wasn’t me, I would think it was just crazy.’
Ayling, from south London, who now lists her home as Los Angles, told the TV show: ‘I was about to put my hand on the door that said ‘Studio’, just to open it, check if anyone was there and what’s when I was attacked from behind.
‘One person put his arm around my neck and the other hand with a glove on my mouth and my nose. And another masked man rushed in front of me and held a syringe to my arm.
‘Obviously, I was trying to fight back because I didn’t want that to go into my arm.
‘I was trying to make a fist, but I can’t fight off two grown men, so they managed to get the syringe into my wrist and then I was unconscious.’
She added that when she came round she found she had been gagged.
‘I didn’t know what it was at first. And I had hands in my handcuffs, and my ankles were handcuffed as well,’ she says.
‘I was trying to feel where I am, I heard the engine so I knew I was in a moving car. I started shouting ‘driver!’ like as loud as I could. They didn’t say anything. Not a word.’