Who is Chloe Ayling and what happened to her? Disturbing details of the 2017 abduction, revisited shortly before BBC docuseries

The Chloe Ayling BBC docuseries revisits the abduction of Chloe Ayling, a British page 3 model, in Italy, which made international headlines in 2017. She was tricked into flying to Milan for a fake modeling job and was then abducted by two men claiming to be part of a dark web criminal organization, Black Death.

The incident, which led to years of public scrutiny and legal battles, is now being revisited in the upcoming Chloe Ayling BBC docuseries. The three-part series, based on real interviews, is set to premiere on 4th August 2025 on iPlayer and aims to shed light on what truly happened.

Chloe Ayling's BBC docuseries revisits 2017 kidnapping

Back in July 2017, Chloe Ayling was a twenty-year-old model from Coulsdon working in London. She was booked for what she believed to be a legitimate photo shoot in Milan, arranged by her agent, Phil Green. But the job was a trap. The man behind the booking was Łukasz Herba, a Polish computer programmer from the UK. Using the fake name Andre Lazio, he set up the shoot with the intention of kidnapping her.

When Chloe arrived at the Milan location on 12th July 2017, she was drugged with ketamine, handcuffed, and shoved into a bag. Herba then drove her in the boot of a car to a secluded house in Viù, near Turin. There, he told her he represented a group called the Black Death Group, a supposed criminal gang that sold women as sex slaves on the dark web. He demanded a ransom of €300,000 or claimed she would be auctioned online.

After six days in captivity, Chloe appeared with Herba at the British consulate in Milan. This unexpected appearance, along with CCTV footage showing the two walking calmly together, caused confusion and doubt about her story. Chloe claimed that she had somehow convinced her captor to let her go. During Herba’s trial, the court heard that he had faked the entire Black Death Group narrative. He later claimed he had fallen in love with Chloe and wanted to help her become famous by staging a scandal. He said he got the idea after watching a movie called By Any Means.

In 2024, Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story, a six-part drama, was released on BBC Three and BBC iPlayer, telling the story of Ayling's abduction. While that was a drama, in which Nadia Parkes played Chloe Ayling, the upcoming project is a docuseries, in which Chloe will be laying down what happened.

When asked why she smiled upon returning home, she said to the BBC,

"That was genuinely how I was feeling at the time. I was happy to be home. I was happy this was over, so why shouldn't I be smiling?"

On 11th June 2018, Herba was found guilty of kidnapping and sentenced to sixteen years and nine months in prison. His sentence was reduced in 2020 to twelve years and one month. Herba’s brother, Michał Herba, was also arrested. Evidence like emails and a strand of his hair in the car’s boot linked him to the crime. He was extradited from the UK, convicted in 2019, and initially sentenced to sixteen years and eight months. In 2021, that sentence was reduced to five years and eight months on appeal.

The case stirred intense media interest, not only because of the crime but also because of how Chloe was treated afterward. Some people, including parts of the press and online users, questioned whether the kidnapping had really happened. Chloe was accused of faking it for publicity.

Chloe told the BBC,

“It was just so big and overpowering,”

“It was blown out of proportion… it was going in a direction that was not true.”

After her return to the UK, Chloe wrote a memoir and appeared on Celebrity Big Brother. Despite the criticism, she says she would not change how she reacted. Chloe added,

"I was true to myself and did what I want[ed] to do, so I don't have any regrets.''

Now, the Chloe Ayling BBC docuseries, titled Chloe Ayling: My Unbelievable Kidnapping, is set to offer a clearer view of what happened. It is made in respect of what Chloe wants, as she told the BBC,

“All I wanted was [the] facts to be laid out and everyone to know what actually happened,”

She hopes her story will change how people view victims. She said,

“This should be a lesson for people not to judge victims based on the way they act or react.”

The Chloe Ayling BBC docuseries, Chloe Ayling: My Unbelievable Kidnapping, airs on 4th August 2025 on iPlayer and aims to reveal the full truth behind a story that was once questioned by the public.

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