Court in Milan sentenced a 30-year-old Polish citizen, Łukasz H. for 16 years and 9 months in prison after finding him guilty of kidnapping a 20-year-old British model, Chloe Ayling.
According to police findings, the man living in Birmingham had lured Ayling with a photo-shoot offer in Milan where she got kidnapped, drugged and brutally transported in a suitcase to a secluded house near Turin. She was kept there for a week.
In the meantime, the kidnapper was trying to organise an internet auction at which he attempted to sell the woman as a sex-slave, the investigators say. The initial price tag was set at 300.000 euro in bitcoins which was equal to the ransom demand sent to the model’s family and manager.
Later on, most likely due to the failure of his plan, the kidnapper released the woman and drove her to British consulate in Milan.
Soon after, Łukasz H. have been arrested by the Italian police who were already after him. Shortly after in Birmingham, the British police have detained his 36-year-old brother who was also accused of kidnapping Ayling. The Italian court decided not question the latter, as he refused to give any statements.
During the trial in Milan, Łukasz H. has presented a new version of events. According to him, Chloe Ayling was in conspiracy with him and accepted his plan to stage her kidnapping, because as he said, "she wanted to gain popularity".
He added that they both agreed to split the ransom money between themselves. These new revelations raised a strong objection on the prosecutor’s part who demanded a psychiatric test for the accused. His motion, however, was rejected.
The new statement by the Pole was confirmed on Monday before the court by his lawyer, Katia Kolakowska who appealed for her client’s exoneration, emphasising that the alleged crime had not been committed.
The attorney said it was "a staged kidnapping" in order to gain popularity. The model, added Kolakowska, entered into an agreement with Łukasz H. "She had a chance to escape on many occasions but she didn’t," she argued.
Furthermore, the attorney said that the model may have been "inspired" by a 2017 movie "By any means" that had entered cinemas a few weeks prior to alleged kidnapping. She explained that the film director wrote her and shared such suspicion. Ms Kolakowska indicated that Ayling was the only person who benefited from the kidnapping because her career thrived after.
The plenipotentiary for the British model, Francesco Pesce rejected this thesis and said before the court that it was a "harmful" incident and described the accused as a "very dangerous" individual. After the verdict has been made, he said it was "fair" taking into account the "horror" the woman has gone through.
The verdict is not yet effective.
Autor: gf / Źródło: PAP, ENEX, tvn24