Loading...
Loading...

In 2017, British glamour model Chloe Ayling went through a terrifying ordeal: abducted from a fake modelling shoot in Italy, held hostage for days by an obsessed stalker, and told she’d been put up for sale into sex slavery on the dark web…
Against all the odds, Chloe escaped – and lived to tell the tale. The only problem? No one believed her.
With headlines declaring her story a hoax and dismissing her as a fame-hungry wannabe, Chloe was only vindicated when her captors were convicted. But even now, the doubts still haven’t gone away.
--
Patreon - Ad-free & Bonus Episodes
YouTube - Full-length Video Episodes
TikTok / Instagram
Sources and more available on redhandedpodcast.com
I did 200 days of Jua Lingo Italian and then I woke up one day and I was like, I don't
care about this anymore, I never would have known from your confidence.
It's all fallen out of my head.
My friend's mum was here from Sardinian, she doesn't speak much English at all and I
know so deeply in my soul how it feels to just be in a situation where everyone is speaking
a language that you understand but you can't interject.
But like, essentially what I'm trying to say, I have been around more Italian than usual
recently because of Michael's mum.
Nothing, nothing, I answer in Spanish, it's completely gone.
Well that's the only Italian word you have to say today.
Okay, do you promise?
Apart from places.
That one I can probably manage.
We can do it.
Okay.
We, two podcasters, both alike in dignity, have a tale that absolutely gripped the UK back
in the summer of 2017 and it is, if you hadn't guessed from my Shakespeare, answer is you're
already saying it, in Fermilano, where we lay our scene, a 20 year old glamour model called
Chloe Ailing, calmly walked into the British consulate and reported her own kidnapping.
I am obsessed with this case.
Chloe claimed she had been snatched from a fake shoot by a mafia style criminal network,
placed for sale into sex slavery on the dark web and kept hostage for a week.
After realising her abductor had a bizarre Romeo and Juliet fantasy that cast her as his
unwilling leading lady, Chloe managed to convince her hapless captain to let her survive beyond
the final curtain.
It was a story so outlandish, it was almost impossible to believe, but Chloe, she was already
gearing up for an encore.
And hours after touching down in London, she was smiling and posing for the paparazzi
in her mum's front garden, calm and seemingly unruffled by her tragic ordeal.
Now of course the bloodthirsty British press swiftly smelter at, was Chloe Ailing truly
a victim, or was this just a big fat publicity stunt of Shakespearean proportions?
Only a decade and a conviction later, doubt still lingers over Chloe's sensational story.
So today we are digging through the chaos, the clickbait and the media smear campaign
to uncover what actually went down.
They say all the worlds are stage, but in this case the line between reality and fiction
is blurrier than ever.
I'm Saruti.
I'm Hannah.
And this is Redhanded and the unbelievable case of Chloe Ailing.
Let's start by meeting our key players.
Leading lady is of course Chloe Ailing.
Born and raised in Coldston, South London, that is where Linda Casey is from, isn't that
funny?
That's very weird.
That's the other episode we're going to record today for a picture of Hannah's episode.
That's very weird and actually I went for dinner with my friend the other day and she's
up.
We're moving out of like, you know, Pete London, we're looking at Coldston and I was
like, I have no idea where that is and now I do.
There's a word for when you learn a new word and then you start hearing it everywhere.
Or a new town.
Yeah.
I don't know what that is.
Maybe that's the word I'll know and then I'll keep hearing that.
Anyway, it doesn't matter.
We're in Coldston.
Wow.
Apparently a lovely little town which is why she wants to move there.
Lovely little town.
It's Croydon.
Well, to be fair, when I was researching Linda Casey for that documentary I did.
That's what people say is that like it's, it's country enough but it's 20 minutes into
Croydon.
Sure.
It looks like a nice little market town.
I'm sure it's fine.
I just think all market towns are the same.
Yeah, because they are.
What do I know?
Anyway, Chloe grew up in an average working class home with her Polish single mum, Biata
and Chloe did well at school and she had plans to study law.
But after giving birth to her son Ashton in her late teens, Chloe swapped the textbooks
for cameras and opted to pursue a career in modeling instead.
She signed up with Supermodel, which sounds really ominous, an agency run by lawyer slash
part time DJ Phil Green.
Chloe's mum and mates weren't exactly sold on Phil who to be fair had a bit of a creepy
uncle vibe.
Any part time DJ I would say, yeah.
But Chloe trusted him to look after her and to raise her profile because this girl wasn't
content with your bog standard local catalogue gigs.
Chloe wanted social media stardom and to be a household name.
I think this is the era when there was definitely like a cohort of girls slash women who were
going into the glamour industry who wanted I guess to replicate what Katie Price slash
Jordan had done and you know, say what you want about her, she is most definitely a household
name.
Sure is.
She's a lot smarter than people.
Let on.
I didn't witness this and neither did you, but we went to the podcast show last year or
the year before in London and the rest of our team went to go see Katie Price do her
session.
I'm sure even outside of the UK people know who Katie Price slash Jordan is, right?
You guys I think she is.
So yeah, they went to go see her do her talk about her new podcast and they were like,
yeah, it was wild.
It was like exactly what you would expect from her.
And then at the end, there was a guy in the audience who stood up, you know, when they
were like doing the Q and A's and he was like, I haven't got a question, but I have written
a rap or a poem or something.
I can't remember which one it was for you Katie.
Can I read it out to you?
And the team were like, she just looked him dead in the eye and said, no, which you've
got to love.
I do.
You've got to love it so much.
No.
And may I remind you of the period of my life where I sold her diamond tape ridles at
horse shows?
You don't have to remind me.
I think about it.
It's my Roman Empire.
I think about it at least once a week.
I've got a picture somewhere.
Find it.
I'll find it.
That's what I think Zoe is going for.
That's what her ambition is.
She wants me to sell bridles for her at Olympia.
And she wants slightly unhinged men to write her poetry that she can just rub off.
Slightly.
But we never heard her.
It might have been a masterpiece.
How would we know?
And while she was too short at five foot six to make it on the hook tour runway scene,
tell that to Kate Moss.
She's five four and from Croydon.
She's five four.
Yes, she's tiny.
More reason that like she was such a huge deal, obviously, before the Coke, because she
was tiny.
And she was the first model to like super duper make it who wasn't massively tall.
See, I have a bit of a, I don't really have much of a chip on my shoulder about my height.
But this weekend, I was doing some calculations.
And I now do have a chip on my shoulder about my height because apparently, if you take
an obviously, this is very like she's five six, sorry Kate Moss is five six.
Fair enough.
This is obviously very generally speaking, but typically if you take the parents of a child,
you can work out on average, obviously there are anomalies, the height that the children
are going to be.
Right.
And I worked it out and I should be taller.
Yeah, but your mum did sniff a lot of petrol.
Yeah.
And electric, you have that much of a crack in your hand.
I'm outraged.
I've been short-changed at least two inches.
Short-changed.
At least two inches.
I worked it out.
Do you know how you work it out?
You add that height plus mum's height.
And then if it's a girl, you minus five inches and then divide it by two.
If it's a boy, you add the heights together, you add five inches and divide it by two.
And that's the height that your children will be.
And I was like, I should be five four and I'm not outraged.
You can have a few of my inches.
I don't need them.
Please.
Anyway, let's get back to this.
Chloe was five six just like Kate Moss and she also had other assets.
She had gorgeous long blonde hair, pretty smile, curvy figure.
She was practically built for your dad's favourite bit of his morning routine.
Page three.
Wasn't it wild when we as a country had page three and nobody really saw a problem with it?
This is what I was thinking.
I feel like that's definitely yes.
But then I'm like, it's way worse the ship we have now.
And we all like pretend that's okay.
What the pedophiles?
The pedophiles.
And like only fans.
And like that's just there.
But that wasn't for sale at the news agent.
But it's like for sale like on this phone everyone has.
Do you not think I was thinking the same thing?
I was like, page three for our non-NUK listeners.
Let me just explain in case they are wondering what the fuck we're talking about.
Starting in the 1970s,
Page three was a thing where national tabloids, like the sun and the daily mirror,
feature top-plus female models on, you guessed it, the third page,
with a cheeky little teaser on the front cover.
And it was definitely in the UK like a cultural phenomenon.
Everyone in this country who is above the age of,
I don't even know how older people now, above the age of 20,
knows what page three is.
I think it might be more than that.
I don't know.
I don't know.
I don't know.
Okay, let's just keep going.
Look, I no longer celebrate the passage of time.
I think it's on cheek.
Sure.
So just meet me where I am.
So okay, I can tell you when it was scrapped.
It was scrapped in 2019.
So yes, 25.
Okay.
So yeah, it was scrapped in 2019.
And yes, I think there is definitely a thing when it was scrapped of like,
oh my god, I can't believe we allowed that to happen.
And I get it because it was literally just like,
you'd go get petrol and there'd just be like,
I think that's the difference for me.
Like, only fans is consumed in the privacy of your own heart.
Sure.
Whereas page three was like, in your face, you know,
you can go anywhere.
No, you're right.
It couldn't.
And you'd often see it where there'd be like, in the stands outside
and like somebody would have ripped a couple of the pages
and then there's just like a pair of tips
that everybody's looking at.
But you know, harmless, probably now given all the hardcore pornography
that children are considering.
So yes, this is where Chloe got her.
Chloe got her first big break two years before it was scrapped.
So in 2017, this was Chloe's first ever professional gig.
And that was no mean feat.
According to her agent Phil Green, part-time DJ,
in the glamour modeling world, being a page three girl
was like being on the cover of Vogue,
except during page three of the Sun,
and like men who have got like saucer draw grease on their hands.
Oh no.
That's what's happening in my head.
I also like, I can only think of Phil Green as the top-top guy.
Oh.
So she's got budget Phil Green.
I'll see.
In my mind, he's Phil from Phil and Gerstie,
which like Paul Phil.
Anyway.
So admittedly, the reporting in page three in these newspapers
wasn't quite as chic as Vogue.
Reporting.
Yeah.
In big, big air quotes.
But Chloe's first shoot did have this charming little write-up.
Curvy Chloe is making her page three day view today
and what a frilly thriller she is.
The 19 year old Sari Sweetie is studying to be a lawyer,
but has always had a secret yearning
to appear in briefs in your favourite paper.
It's not bad copy.
It's pretty good.
Frilly thriller.
That's how good.
Now you might be cringing.
We're not.
We are actually quite appreciated that.
And Chloe certainly did because for her,
this was a stepping stone to the fortune and fame
that she had been dreaming of.
Chloe actually went on to do several page three shoots
and rapidly became one of Phil's most requested models,
which opened the door to more well-paying gigs,
earning her up to £600 a day.
At just 19 years old,
Chloe was flying high.
But she wanted more.
So, when a request came through her agency
for a solo glamour shoot in Paris in April 2017,
Chloe leapt at the chance.
The gig involved modeling custom-sized motorcycle leathers
and the photographer,
an Italian guy called Andre Lazio,
had asked for Chloe specifically.
After not top-shop Phil Green did his usual checks,
which was a quick Google search.
And said everything seemed legit.
Chloe was excited to explore a new city
and finally see the Eiffel Tower.
Achbu apparently was voted the most disappointing
tourist attraction in the world.
Yeah, well those Japanese businessmen all get Paris syndrome
because it's so disappointing, don't they?
They sure are.
The fact that all her expenses would be paid for
with a hotel stay before the morning shoot,
that was just the cherry on top of the Quassal.
But Chloe's trip was interrupted when chaos hit
the city of Le Moul.
A policeman was shot on the Champs-Elysées
in a terror attack,
so Metro stations were shut,
and there was a heavy police presence everywhere.
Advised to wait at all out in her hotel,
Chloe didn't feel particularly freaked out.
In those days she felt invincible,
like nothing bad could ever touch her.
Still, fate had a spanner in the works for Chloe.
The next morning she got a call to say
that the shoot had actually been called off.
The studio had been raided
in the fallout of the terrorist instant,
so instead of her and makeup,
Chloe was being bundled straight to the airport.
After a hiccup with her prepaid taxi,
the photographer Andre,
a skinny guy in sporty sunglasses,
came to her rescue and covered the fare.
They chatted for a few minutes,
and Andre said that he hoped
they would be able to reschedule the shoot.
Paris not working out was a bit of a bummer,
but Chloe wasn't the sort of girl to wallow.
Instead, she turned it to her advantage,
notching up a few tabloid column inches
back in the UK with her account
of being caught up in a terror attack.
Cut to a few months later,
when another email pinged into Phil Green's inbox,
the leather shoot was back on,
and this time it was going to be
a Andre's new studio premises in Milan.
While Chloe was buzzing,
her mumbiata was a bit less enthusiastic.
She didn't trust Phil,
and she couldn't shake the feeling
that something was wrong.
She begged Chloe not to go to Italy,
but, with stars in her eyes,
Chloe went anyway.
Just like in Paris,
she was put up in a swanky hotel
and the shoot was booked for the next day.
Everything seemed totally familiar and above board,
until the morning of Wednesday 12th of July,
when everything changed.
And what we've got for you now
is Chloe's account of what happened next.
After a quick breakfast at the hotel,
Chloe got a taxi to the address
that she'd been given,
confused about which building to go into,
she rang the number on Andre's emails
and asked for directions.
A guy calling himself Daniel answered,
telling Chloe to head inside and wait for Andre.
As Chloe made her way in,
something felt a bit off.
Photo studios are usually noisy
in full of movement,
but this place was dead silent.
Spotting a handwritten sign
that just said the word studio,
Chloe approached the next door.
And then, a gloved hand
suddenly clamped over her nose and mouth.
Chloe couldn't breathe.
She kicked and struggled,
but then another man appeared in front of her,
clad in a black ski mask
and holding a syringe.
She watched the needle sink into her wrist,
and then everything went black.
The next thing Chloe knew,
she felt like she was underwater.
Her mouth was taped,
and her hands were cuffed.
She groggily realized
that she was enclosed in something,
rubbery and thick.
Chloe heard a foreign language radio blaring,
and that's when it hit her.
She was bundled up inside a bag
in the boot of a moving car.
Dressed in only the pink velvet bodysuit
that she put on under her clothes that morning,
Chloe was sweating so much
that the tape slipped from her mouth easily.
She started shouting as loud as she could
hoping to get the attention of the driver,
in case they didn't know she was in there.
And then, the car stopped.
Two men in ski masks,
unzip to the bag,
and stared down at Chloe
before pouring sparkling water in her mouth.
Chloe didn't know what they wanted,
but she realized they were trying to keep her alive.
Bizarre, at one point,
one of the men removed his mask
and got into the boot with her,
almost spooning her.
Chloe desperately tried to ask him
where they were going and who the driver was,
but he simply told her in broken English
that he didn't know.
This guy was strangely gentle with her,
pulling up her top to cover her modesty
and calling for the driver to stop
so they could undo her cuffs for the rest of the journey.
Finally, after several hours,
the car slowed to a stop for a final time.
The unmasked man ordered Chloe
to climb back into the bag
or be drugged again.
Paralyzed with fear,
Chloe complied
and let them carry her into a house.
It was dank and cold.
The shutters were down,
so Chloe had no idea where she was.
She was led up a set of concrete steps
to an upstairs room
with a sleeping bag on the floor
and cuffed by her wrists and ankles
to a wooden chest of drawers.
Chloe laid on the sleeping bag
for what felt like hours.
She heard male voices arguing downstairs
and the sound of a door slamming.
And then a man walked in
who Chloe didn't recognize at first.
He told her,
I don't know if you remember,
but we briefly met in Paris.
And then it dawned on Chloe,
who was Andre, the photographer.
Smirking, he said his name was actually MD.
And he definitely wasn't a photographer.
None of them ever are.
Don't trust them.
He sat on the bed
and started telling Chloe,
what had apparently gone down?
And buckle up everyone
because this is going to be a wild fucking ride.
I do often wonder, often is strong.
I have previously had this thought.
What happened to the page three photographers?
Where did they go?
Paparazzi.
Yeah.
Yeah, you're right.
They all became part-time DJs probably.
Anyway, the mysterious MD told Chloe
that he was a high-ranking operative
of an Eastern European Mafia organization
called Black Death Group.
Yeah.
If they tell you, no, they aren't.
And look, the problems start immediately, right?
Now, who is to blame for the problems we're going to come to later?
But we're going to stick with the story for now.
What I would say at this point is,
if I had been abducted by a bunch of men
and they start taking their masks off,
I'm like, I'm dead.
Yep.
I'm dead.
No one takes their mask off
if they're not going to kill you later,
unless something weird is going on,
which we'll get back to,
unless it didn't happen.
Or they're nuts.
So many questions.
Let's continue.
So, Black Death Group operated through the Deep Web,
which is even worse,
even shadier than the Dark Web.
And they were involved in all sorts of horrible stuff,
drugs, arms deals, assassinations,
and obviously sex trafficking look classic.
And Chloe listened in horror
as MD casually explained
that the group would routinely sell kidnapped girls
between 14 and 20 years old.
Virgins sold for the most,
and most of the buyers were wealthy,
Saudi Arabians.
Yeah.
So basically, it's the plot of taken.
So it would appear, yes.
I'm just saying this doesn't happen.
No, no.
That's what it absolutely does fucking happen.
I just find it odd that you would kidnap somebody,
take your mask off,
and then bond villain style
explain to them your entire business.
Yeah.
I don't know why.
Including age range of girls you traffic.
Just a little flip chart,
a pointer.
I don't know.
I don't know why this is happening.
Here is my passport.
This is my mum's maiden name.
Anyway, once these girls were sold,
the Black Death Group would pass
these girls around as sex slaves,
until inevitably the men who bought them
got bored of her.
At which point,
the girl would most likely be fed to their pet tigers?
Yeah.
That's not us making a joke.
That's what Chloe says MD told her.
Right.
But then MD revealed
that there had actually been a bit of a cock-up
with Chloe's abduction.
He grumbled that the stupid Romanians,
the two goons who had brought her to this house,
had misunderstood his instruction
that Chloe must not be taken
with Chloe must be taken.
And so they took her.
It's always someone's first day.
Now, according to MD,
the Black Death had a rule
that mothers shouldn't be trafficked.
But before you go thinking
this is some sort of nice
code of ethics situation,
it was actually just because
having a baby quite significantly
devalues the worth of a sex slave
on the Black Market.
That, I believe.
Yes.
So Chloe said was absolutely spinning
as she tried to process
everything she was hearing.
If it was all just a mistake,
then surely she could just go home.
Right?
Well, no,
because they've told you
their entire business
and their entire criminal organisation
and they've taken their masks off.
But there was a bigger problem
because MD told her
wasn't going to be that simple.
Chloe had already been advertised.
She was officially up for sale.
And what MD showed Chloe next
was complete nightmare fuel.
She had her own advert
on the Black Death Group site,
selling her like an old top on Vinted.
Wrapped in the Black Death Group Signature
Creepy Branding,
which is like,
Plague Doctor Clipper,
that someone's put together
on Microsoft Paint.
Yeah.
They really lean
into the Plague Doctor
as their logo of choice.
Again,
why are you showing her the advert?
Why is any of this happening?
Why are you advertising
your criminal enterprise
with a logo?
I mean,
you've got to stand out
in a busy people trafficking crowd.
They're putting it all on the deep web.
The Saudis are sat at home,
checking it out,
and they're like,
oh, yes, the Plague Doctor,
they do good girls.
Apparently.
And I know we're making light of this.
I genuinely believe
that this sort of horrible, horrible thing happens.
Of course it is.
It's not even a question.
It's just what's actually going on here.
Is the question.
The ad featured chilling photos
of Chloe lying unconscious
and drugged on the floor
along with her name,
age, and her measurements.
And right there,
in black and white,
the advert stated
that Chloe was up for sale
at a sex slavery auction
on Sunday,
with a starting bid of
$300,000 US dollars.
Chloe had just five days left
of freedom
before she was going to be sold
into sex slavery.
But then,
came a hint of hope
in the form of MD himself.
He claimed
that when he saw Chloe's advert,
he was furious
about the mess
and had personally stepped in
to handle it.
Now he told Chloe
while he didn't usually
deal with the girls himself
because that was
far beneath his pay grade.
In this case,
he was taking a stand.
With everything he said,
MD positioned himself
as Chloe's ally,
the one person
in the fearsome black
death group
who was willing to fight her corner.
And while he said
he wanted to facilitate her release,
he claimed
that it was sadly
already too late
to simply pull Chloe
from this auction.
Her advert had already
generated high interest
and they couldn't
risk upsetting
their very valuable clients.
The price had been set
and it had to be paid.
Luckily,
MD had a solution
up his creepy sleep.
He told Chloe
that if her people
could raise the starting
bit of $300,000,
he'd let her go.
Chloe's heart sank.
She knew there was no way
that her agent
or her family could afford
that kind of money.
So, at MD's urging,
she named the three
wealthiest bloke
she could think of
in her circle.
Her investment banker friend
called Rory McCarthy,
celebrity agent David Reed,
and Paul Baxendale Walker,
former porn star,
an owner of Loaded magazine.
It was a desperate stat
in the dark,
but it was all Chloe had.
MD told Chloe
that he would pass these names
onto her agent, Phil Green,
with the hope
of getting the ball rolling
on or raising that money.
All there was left to do
was wait.
Now, while all
this is going down,
back in the UK,
Chloe was due
to land at Gatwick
on Wednesday night.
But of course,
she never arrived.
Her frantic mum
called Phil Green,
Chloe's agent,
who didn't take it that
seriously at first.
Shrugging that maybe
Chloe's phone had died
and maybe there
just been a delay
with her flight.
And in that single interaction,
I think I honestly
understand why Chloe's mum
wasn't Phil's
biggest fan.
Like Chloe's gone off
on her own.
She's still very young.
She's only 19.
She's gone off on her own
to a solo shoot
in a different country.
And he's just like,
Meh?
Don't know.
But the next morning,
things took a terrifying turn.
Phil got an email
from MD.
There was absolutely
riddled with typos,
but had a crystal
clear message.
Chloe was being held
for ransom.
Phil panicked
and got the police involved,
who took over his
computer and communicated
with MD from then on,
pretending to be Phil,
part-time DJ,
part-time agent,
full-time creep.
Meanwhile,
the Italian police
investigation kicked off
in Milan,
with the coolest
sounding crime-fighting
duo ever.
Serena Ferrari.
That's a great name.
And
Gianluca Simon Tacci.
It's okay.
So Serena Ferrari
and Gianluca Simon Tacci
were the lead investigators
on the Chloe case.
And their search
yielded immediate red flags.
At the building
where Chloe was dropped off,
they found her phone shoes
and clothes.
To no surprise,
a few basic inquiries
revealed that it wasn't
a legitimate photo studio,
at all.
Following the paper trail
from the building rental,
they discovered that the phone
number had been registered
with a Polish passport
in the name of Daniel Zawada.
But after checking
with Polish authorities,
it quickly became clear
that the idea was fake.
So the police,
no matter how good their names,
had no leads as to
where Chloe was
and time was running out.
That auction approach
is...
Yeah.
Now in captivity,
MD finally got a reply
from Phil
to his ransom email.
All it said?
Received.
It was a gut punch
for Chloe, who felt like Phil
clearly didn't give a shit about her.
Even MD was shocked
by what he perceived
as a lack of urgency
from Phil the agent.
So we fired off
multiple follow-up emails
demanding more cash.
As she counted down
to when she would be auctioned off,
Chloe could only pray
that somehow her camp
would scramble up the funds
before it was too late.
And while they waited,
MD seemed happy
to keep Chloe entertained.
So he doesn't just leave her
in this room
and go about his
nefarious black death business
because, remember,
he's a very high-up
member of this criminal organisation.
He just hangs out with her.
In this farmhouse,
he's got her locked up in.
He would spin endless yarns
about his exploits
in the notorious black death group.
He even boasted
about his extensive
military training
and claimed
that he'd risen
to become a level 12 operative
out of 20,
giving him special status.
MD also told Chloe
that he was an assassin
who had killed thousands
of people delivering his news
as casually
as if he was describing
a video game.
Thousands.
Thousands.
You don't do much.
And as he left a plate
of food by Chloe's head,
he let her into another little secret.
His method of choice
was poison.
Lame.
If you're going to choose,
obviously,
actually, what would you do?
If I was going to be an assassin,
if you were going to be an assassin,
what would be your calling card?
Mm-hmm.
I try to probably pick poison.
Poisoned up.
That's a good one.
But then everybody can see the dart
and they know.
Yeah, I want them to know.
Oh, you want them to know
I want them to know that it was me.
A big red fluffy feather.
A big red.
It's a big red.
So yeah, well,
Chloe's listening to all this.
She's thinking that it's a weird combination right.
It feels like MD is simultaneously trying to scare her,
but also trying to impress her.
But,
according to Chloe,
no matter how afraid she was,
she never once let it show on her face.
Even MD was surprised by how stoic she was,
remarking that she was handling it better
than the other girls
who would scream and tearfully beg for mercy.
Because if there is one thing
that Chloe ailing is not,
it's a crybaby.
Ever since she was a kid,
she hated showing emotions in front of people
and she definitely wasn't about to start now.
So,
throughout her entire ordeal,
Chloe remained calm, cool and placid.
And while that composure may well have held
the key to her survival in that tiny room,
back in the real world,
it might just prove to be Chloe's undoing.
As the hours blurred into days,
MD's treatment of Chloe
began to gradually shift.
He started by loosening the physical restraints,
undoing her handcuffs
and letting her move around more freely upstairs.
Still,
he always was sure to remind her
that there was no point trying to run
because they were in a remote location in Germany
and if Chloe escaped,
then the other black death
operatives in the area would kill her on sight.
He reminded her
that no police knew she was there
and that there was nowhere to run.
But the truth was,
making a break for it
didn't even cross Chloe's mind.
In her eyes,
MD wasn't just her Jailer.
He also held the key to her freedom.
And as far as kidnappers go,
MD was almost genuine.
But the truth was,
making a break for it
didn't even cross Chloe's mind.
She was almost gentlemanly.
He let Chloe take showers
and use the bathroom on her own
and gave her a fresh set of clothes.
He treated her
with a level of respect
that felt deliberate,
often reminding her
that the Romanians
wouldn't treat her in the same way.
If she'd been a bitch
and kicked off,
MD claimed that he would have
let them shove her
in the barn outside,
like they normally did with the other girls.
MD made Chloe feel
like she had a special level of protection
and as rough as it all was,
it could have been a hell
of a lot worse if he wasn't there.
And so, slowly,
an uneasy sort of trust
began to form between the pair.
MD trusted that Chloe
wouldn't run or raise the alarm,
and in return,
Chloe trusted that MD
wouldn't hurt her.
So, when he asked
if she wanted to swap
the sleeping bag
for the bed beside him,
Chloe accepted.
From the second night of her captivity,
they slept side by side,
under separate blankets.
And after a few days,
Chloe clocked something else
about her captor.
MD didn't just see her
as a hostage anymore.
He liked her.
He really liked her.
MD told Chloe she was beautiful,
and once even leaned in for a kiss.
Chloe instinctively
was spoiled,
but she didn't scream or get angry.
She says that she knew
outright rejection
could tip the balance
in a very bad way for her.
Instead, Chloe stalled
and said she just wasn't in the right headspace.
But after she was released,
she'd be more open to seeing
where things went.
MD apparently lit up at this.
Chloe had given him hope
that after this was all over,
he might just have bagged himself
a glamour model girlfriend.
A fanfiction?
Yeah.
And at that moment,
for Chloe,
everything shifted on its axis.
Suddenly, this wasn't just a kidnapping.
It was a love story.
Romeo had found his Juliet,
well, at least in his
delusional mind.
As for Chloe,
she suddenly realised
that if she ever wanted
to see her mum and her son
ever again,
she would need to keep
MD's twisted fantasy alive.
It was a decision
that would get her
a lot of flak down the line.
But Chloe has always maintained
that she wouldn't change
a thing about what she did
in captivity
because it had worked.
Back in the UK,
the days stretched on
with fading hopes.
By Saturday morning,
the ransom negotiations
had stalled completely.
An awful filigree
and could offer was
a measly 20,000 quid.
And that had been
put in by Chloe's wealthy
bankermate rory.
After submitting the offer,
they were met with radio silence.
The day of reckoning
loomed closer.
Dread set in.
And around 3am on Sunday,
another email landed
from MD with just three short words.
She's gone.
Mate.
Officers feared that they had
completely fumbled the bag
on this tricky case.
Had Chloe been sold?
Or worse?
Was she already dead?
They had no idea
that in that ramshackle house,
Chloe was still very much alive.
And she could almost
taste her freedom.
With big old fluttery heart eyes,
MD told Chloe
that he had a new plan
to get her out.
He said he would deal
with his superiors
in the Black Death Group,
selling several of his own properties
worldwide and paying
a substantial sum
in exchange for Chloe's freedom.
The only snag?
Chloe would have to
stump up $50,000 herself,
to be paid within a month
of being back in the UK.
Now to our South Sideers,
that sounds insanely suspicious.
What kind of kidnapper
just lets their hostage go
with some sort of IOU note?
One that doesn't exist.
But Chloe was so desperate
at this point
that she says she just
didn't question anything.
Ever helpful,
MD even had an ingenious suggestion
for how she could raise the money.
He reckoned
that the story
of Chloe's impossible
kidnapped would give her
tons of exposure
in the form of modeling gigs
and showbiz work
that could comfortably
cover her debt.
Mental?
Absolutely.
Compelling?
To Chloe's exhausted brain?
Yeah.
So she accepted the terms
and committed herself fully
to MD's utterly bonkers plan.
According to MD,
the last thing they needed
was a release letter
from his superiors
in the Black Death Group
laying out the terms
of Chloe's release,
because if there's one thing
that large-scale
mafia-like organisations
love,
it's paperwork.
Madfrap.
A very meticulous paper trail
of what they're doing here.
Gotta get the admin right.
So,
while they waited for it
to land in his inbox,
MD said that he'd take Chloe
to the local village
shop to buy pair of shoes.
On Sunday morning,
Chloe took her first
faltering steps
outside the ramshackle farmhouse
where she'd been
cooped up for almost a week,
and froze.
Stretched out
before her,
where the Italian Alps,
a view so perfect,
could have been
a desktop background.
Under different circumstances,
she'd have been blown away.
That's when MD admitted
that he had told her
a teensy little white lie,
they weren't in Germany.
They'd never left it to thee.
But he did drive
down to the village anyway,
and MD told Chloe
that she had to act
like his girlfriend.
He warned that the
Black Death Agents
were watching their
every move,
and they would kill her
if she caused a scene.
It was a surreal
experience for Chloe
as they stroll through
the village,
like an ordinary pair
of young lovers.
Feeling the sun on her skin,
trying on trainers,
eating fresh fruit
from a market stall,
none of it seemed real.
Chloe said that she felt
hypnotised,
like a machine being
controlled.
The only thing
she could focus on
was complying
with MD's commands,
and playing her role
perfectly.
After returning to the house,
the long-awaited,
release letter
finally came through,
and it gave the go-ahead
for Chloe to be set free.
But, like MD had warned,
there were a hell of a lot
of teasing-sees.
Chloe had to pay
50k in Bitcoin
within a month
of being let go,
which she would finance
through media exposure
and selling her
survival story.
She was also expected
to promote the Black
Death Group
in her tell-all interviews,
which, like,
why?
Why, as like a
secret mafia organisation,
would you want somebody
to promote your group?
I don't know what that
even means,
but, you know,
I haven't read the
paperwork.
And if that's not
confusing enough,
things only get worse.
The number one rule
was that Chloe
must not, under any
circumstances,
involve police.
Think about that
for a second.
How was she supposed to
go around telling
everybody what had happened
to her this tragic
audio she needs,
the story she needs
like to get the headlines
about being a survivor
of a sex-trafficking ring.
But, she's also
not allowed to
have any sort of
legal investigation
take place.
But, Chloe didn't
have time to worry about
the logistics.
This was it.
In the early hours
of Monday the 17th
of July, six days
after she was first
snatched from the
empty warehouse,
Chloe Aaling was
on her way back to Milan.
During a long car ride
from the countryside,
MD explained
what needed to happen
next.
He would drop her off
a 20-minute walk
away from the British
consulate.
She was going to go in,
identify herself as
Chloe Aaling,
the kidnap model,
and say that she had
called a friend
who had kindly
brought her to Milan.
But, not stuck around
to come into the consulate
with her.
Couldn't even be asked
to walk her to the door
of the British consulate.
Yeah, I'll come pick you up,
but I really have
got a hell of a day.
I'll drop you off
about 20-minute walk
away. Is that all right?
You got these new
trainers.
Chloe was not
to say, then,
he was a captain.
In this version,
he was just a good
Samaritan.
But then things
all went a little bit
pear-shaped.
The journey
went a lot quicker
than MD expected.
So they arrived in Milan
at half-seven,
a whole two hours
before the consulate
opened.
MD got jittery,
not wanting to leave
Chloe unsupervised for so
long.
So he took her for breakfast
and then walked her
to the consulate himself,
and he went in with her.
Together, they passed
various layers of security,
including armed guards,
until Chloe reached the
desk and declared
who she was.
Missing model Chloe Aaling,
had been found.
And the consulate
knew exactly who Chloe was.
She was a high priority
interpol missing
persons case.
But they played it cool,
and asked Chloe to come
to be interviewed
in a private room,
alone.
This rattled MD,
who insisted on coming
with her,
but was, of course,
denied.
Inside, a little
room with the consulate
staff,
Chloe could see MD
staring at her
through the glass door,
and she felt herself
sweating.
Now, at first,
Chloe stuck to the
story that MD
was just a friend who
would help her.
But then, Chloe says,
she suddenly thought,
fuck it,
and told them everything.
The next thing she knew,
MD was being arrested
by police and led away.
Her six-day ordeal
was finally over.
But, now,
a whole new nightmare
was about to begin.
At the police station,
Chloe was grilled
for over 15 hours
by Ferrari and Simon Tachy.
Chloe says that this was
actually the most
terrifying part of the
whole thing,
because while she was
technically free,
in her head,
she still felt like a
prisoner.
The Black Death
agents were still out there.
At any moment,
they could find out she'd
spoken to the police
and broken their
golden rule.
Without MD,
she had no one to
protect her from them.
Chloe felt like
she'd signed her own
death warrant.
And then,
came a huge curve
for that Chloe
had never even considered.
The possibility
that not everyone
might believe her.
Because, you see,
Chloe had left out
a pretty important detail
in her police interviews.
She didn't mention
the trip into the village
to buy shoes with MD.
And now,
the stony face prosecutor
wanted to know
why she'd lied about it.
Because, remember,
she's being held captive,
he takes her down
to buy trainers,
he takes her back to
the farmhouse,
and they wait for
the release letter
to come from, you know,
head office.
And then,
he brings her to the
consulate.
So that is a separate
trip that she doesn't
tell the police about.
But investigators had found
the CCTV of the pair
of them in the village,
and they'd also
spoken to the lady
from the hiking shop
where they had bought
the trainers,
who said that they
just seemed like a
normal couple.
Chloe says,
she didn't mention this
trip at the time,
because she'd already
been held for hours
and questioned again
and again by this point.
And she said she knew
it would trigger
a lot more difficult
questions that she
just didn't have the
energy for,
she just wanted to go home.
But the police were
asking her,
why hadn't she
run?
How could she explain
how cozy they look
together?
Deep down,
Chloe probably sensed
that if she had told them
about this particular trip,
it probably
would have made her
story seem even
flimsier.
And she was right.
Her emission
cast a giant
black cloud over her
entire account,
with the prosecutor
even asking her,
how can we
believe anything you say?
It hit Chloe
like a ton of breaks.
She hadn't even
thought about the
possibility of people
not trusting her version
of events.
And now a single
pair of trainers threatened
to destroy everything.
Chloe was forced to stay
in Milan for over a week
while the investigation
continued.
She was moved to a safe
house, a woman's
refuge hostel
with grim conditions
that made her feel even
more like a prisoner,
even though
officially she was
classified as a victim.
And even after a
kind woman from the
British consulate took
her under her wing
and helped her find
a secure apartment,
Chloe was constantly
on edge.
She was convinced
that black death was
still out there,
and could strike
at any moment.
All she wanted
was to go home.
But first,
she would have to return
to the scene of her
captivity.
The police took Chloe
back to the farmhouse,
a dilapidated old
place in the tiny hamlet
of view near to her
inn, and they
asked her to show
them where everything
had happened.
True to form,
Chloe stayed calm
and collected,
but her body language
gave away how
shaken she was to be
back there.
Chloe recalled every single
detail of the house,
with impressive accuracy.
It all checked out.
And that was the
turning point for the
Italian authorities.
Finally, they felt
confident that Chloe was
telling the truth.
But there was one last
hurdle before Chloe
could go home.
She bravely spoke
at a pre-trial hearing
for MD on the 4th
of August,
where the judge praised her
testimony as extremely
precise, specific,
and detailed.
This pre-trial hearing
is where Chloe began to
realise for the first time
that maybe things
weren't quite what they
seemed.
She had always seen MD
as her saviour,
the guy who had stepped
in after her bungled
abduction,
and fought to free her
at great personal
cost.
But now in court,
she heard a very
different story.
Chloe learnt that the
photos of her
drugged at the sham
studio were taken
on MD's phone.
So, not quite the
dumb Romanians that had
done it.
And then slowly,
the sickening truth
fell into place.
MD was actually one
of the masked men
who were taken her.
He hadn't come to say
her.
He was the reason
she was in the house
of his place.
And there was one more
question Chloe was
finally about to learn
the answer to.
Who actually was
the mysterious MD?
Does out.
He was a Polish guy
called Lucas Herber.
A computer programmer
by trade.
He was 30 years old
and happened to live
near Birmingham.
So obviously,
the million-pound question
was, was he really
a notorious dark
web criminal?
And we will get to that
when we get to his
trial, but sure answer,
no.
No, he was not.
It looked as if he had
fabricated the whole black
death web of lies as a part
of some bizarre fantasy
in kidnapping Chloe.
The only other person
involved was his brother,
Michael, the unmasked guy
from the car.
For Chloe, this was a
mind-fuck of epic proportions.
She wasn't being hunted
by international criminals.
She wasn't, in some
sort of high stakes
mafia plot.
She could finally stop
looking over her shoulder.
Or at least that's
what she thought.
Because Chloe had a big
shitstorm coming her way.
Back in London,
Chloe didn't have time
to enjoy her reunion
with her loved ones.
She'd literally just stepped
off the plane
when the paparazzi
were already swarming
her mum's front lawn.
According to Chloe,
this is not what she wanted.
If it were up to her,
she'd have kept the
whole thing a secret.
Now that might be hard to
believe, since we know
that Chloe wanted to be
famous.
But it does make sense that
even someone who wants
fame may not want that
fame for the worst
trauma they had ever
endured.
According to her.
But ultimately, Chloe
didn't have much choice
in the matter.
The story had already
broken in Italy due to
their custom of sharing
high-profile case
information with the media.
So it was only a matter
of time before I hit the
UK press.
Peering out of the windows
of her mum's modest
semi, it looked like
that time was now.
So on the advice of her
banker friend,
Rory, Chloe decided to
give them what they
wanted, a statement
and some snaps,
in the hopes that they
would finally leave.
She stepped out into the
garden dressed in a
skimpy vest-top and
tiny shorts.
Her hair was
voluminous,
and she was
immaculately made up.
She looked every
inch the glamorous
page three girl,
and not what anyone
had expected from a
traumatised
kidnapped victim.
Chloe read out a
short statement where she
described the
terror of her
ordeal.
Her words were
powerful.
But her delivery
didn't quite match.
We've got it for you now.
I've been
through a terrifying
experience I
feared for my life,
and I'm
incredibly grateful to
the Italian
and the UK authorities
for all they have
done to secure my
safe release.
She sounded monotone,
flat and
unaffected, almost like
it was a rehearsed
script, which like,
if I was giving a
press conference,
I would practice.
I would absolutely
plan what I was
going to say,
and I think the way
she speaks,
and she uncomfortably
sort of laughs at
points.
This is what was
sort of like,
setting people on
edge of it.
And also like, as a
nation, if I had to
pick a type of
person that would not
be graciously received
by the British
public, it would be a
page three model.
Yeah.
After she finished
speaking, Chloe did
what Chloe does best.
She started posing.
She went for photos
treating the ad hoc
press conference like a
glamour shoot.
Chloe says that she was
just so relieved to be
home that she couldn't
help smiling.
But people's
bullshit detectors
were ringing.
And from that point on,
there was a massive
red flashing question mark
above Chloe Ailing
and her story.
The tabloids, as you can
imagine, were brutal
from the get-go.
Aggressively pushing the
narrative that Chloe was
a fraud and the whole thing
had just been a
publicity stunt.
Journalists even
tracked down her ex
a man named Connor Keys,
who only found
the flames further by
claiming that he
basically raised their
son single-handedly,
while Chloe, quote,
just loves the camera.
Chloe's career as a
glamour model was also
taken as evidence that
she must be
fame-obsessed,
vapid, and morally
bankrupt.
The general consensus
was basically,
of course,
she's not a real victim
because she gets her
tits out for cash.
We love that one.
Yeah.
And look, we'll talk
about theories at the
end.
But I think it's important
remember, she's 19
years old.
Yeah.
And she is at the centre
of a media-feeding
frenzy when this story
breaks.
Like, can you think of a
more exciting story
for the press to talk
about?
She handles it badly,
but she got fucking
part-time DJ Phil Green
in her corner, like,
yeah.
It's all just handled
so, so poorly.
I think it's also not
lost on you guys
listening.
It certainly isn't
lost on us.
The incredible level
of irony here,
that the very same
tabloids at a
booked Chloe,
four page three,
repeatedly,
were now launching a
vicious crusade
to drag her down.
They even dredged up
the CCTV footage
of her walking
with Herba in that
village,
and twisted it
into evidence
of this whole thing
being a hoax,
despite the fact
that Italian authorities
now completely
believed Chloe.
And, yeah.
There's a lot
of headlines,
but here's one actual
headline from the Daily
Star.
Kidnapped Page
Three Girl
made it all up.
They're just saying
that without any
evidence.
That's just their
theory that they're
printing as a headline.
Now, the times later
called out the
misogyny and classism
at play.
And Chloe herself
saw racons that she
would have been
believed had she been
like a teacher instead
of a Page Three
model.
So, cast in a role
she couldn't run
from.
Chloe found herself
as the villain
of the piece.
Chloe A-ling ain't no
quitter.
She decided to fight
back and try and take
control of the narrative,
dumping her old agent,
bargain-bun-filled green,
who she rightfully
blamed for not doing
adequate checks to
protect her.
Chloe joined forces
with flashy celebrity
agent Adrian Sington,
and decided that it was
time to tell her
side of the story.
And hey, if she could
capitalize on her
15 minutes of fame
however unfortunate
and make some money
in the process,
why not?
It's quite literally
the only way the game
is played.
As Adrian put it, she
could either become
the poster girl
for modern slavery,
or she could make
money.
And Chloe, unsurprisingly,
chose the latter.
She signed a 30K deal
with the mail on Sunday
for an exclusive
tell-all interview
before embarking on a
whistle-stop tour
of all the major
morning TV shows,
including a particularly
vicious grilling
by Pierce Morgan
on Good Morning Britain.
They did also come out
that you lied to the
police.
I brushed it off,
I didn't lie.
We did lie.
I brushed it off.
We didn't brush it
off, you lied.
I was tired.
I just said, I don't
know what the problem is.
Your idea of brushing
it off, you lied.
Well, the police still
believe me.
So I shouldn't,
a few random people.
My point is, it doesn't
help you.
I think we should be able
to judge you.
Well, if I was just a
30-year-old woman,
like not a model,
do you think people would
have the same opinion?
No, I don't think
if you're going to conduct
media interviews where you're
being paid money and
you're doing a book
of thousands of pounds
before there's even been a
trial.
I think we're perfectly
entitled to ask you
difficult questions.
Yeah, that's fine.
I can answer all of them.
Yeah.
So you're not being unfairly
judged.
No, I don't mind.
I can answer all of them.
You're sitting here
because you're promoting
yourself, right?
Yeah.
I think doing the rounds
of the TV shows like this,
if Chloe thought she was
going to win people over,
it absolutely blew up in her
face.
In fact, the more publicity
she did, the more
the narrative that she just
did this all for attention
and the story was fake.
And look, we just
listened to a clip there
of her on Good Morning
Britain.
That's pretty much the same
thing that happens again and
again.
She's very young still
and she's speaking very,
very quickly and without
much emotion.
And I think it's like,
it's unusual for us to see
people who are not media
trained in these circumstances.
I'd like, I'll be honest,
I don't mean this a shade
like often people you see
on social media, often
people you see going on
these sort of shows,
even if they're not
media trained are very
charismatic,
are very confident.
She just isn't those
things.
And I think that works
against her so significantly.
People are just like,
she kind of speaks in a
weird way.
She kind of presents herself
in a strange way.
She speaks very, very
quickly, without much
emotion.
And I think it just,
is that indicative of her
lying or is that indicative
of her just being a bit
of an odd person?
Anyway, we'll talk about it
more later, but
this really didn't help her.
In fact, opinion polls
claimed that over 90
percent of viewers had
quote, very little sympathy
for Chloe.
An online,
the hate train against her
showed absolutely no
signs of slowing.
Twitter trended with
sick memes of people
filming themselves in
suitcases begging for
ransom.
And even some models
that she'd once
considered her friends
joined in.
Chloe was furious at
the injustice of it all.
She knew it was a
bizarre story.
She even says, in one
of these interviews, if
somebody told me this
story, I probably
wouldn't believe them
either.
But her question was
always, just because the
story sounds crazy.
That's what happened, so
how is it my fault?
Chloe hated how she was
constantly expected to
explain Luke as her
was convoluted psychotic
schemes, as if she was the
one who was lying.
In the end, Chloe realised
that she couldn't fight
fire with fire, and
expect to come out
looking like the good guy.
Or she could do was
hope for a conviction
back in Italy.
And she hoped if that
came, it would prove
once and for all that
she had been telling the
truth.
And that time came, in
December 2017, when the
trial of Lucas Herbert
began in Milan.
Despite his lawyers
trying to force her,
Chloe wasn't required to
attend, since she'd
already testified
at a hearing in August.
The key thing you need to
know here is that Italians
do not fuck about when
it comes to kidnapping
cases.
According to Chloe's
lawyer, Francesco Pesce,
it's easier to get away
with mud.
Kidnap cases come with hefty
prison sentences of 20 to
25 years if found guilty.
So in this case, unsurprisingly,
the prosecution went in hard
on Lucas Herbert, and left
nothing to chance.
Over 50 witnesses for the
prosecution presented evidence
in court that overwhelmingly
corroborated Chloe's story
of her abduction.
Most amingly, Chloe was found
to have been given a
near lethal dose of
ketamine, from traces
in her hair, along with
needle marks on her wrist.
A digital forensic
investigation proved that
Lucas had ordered black
ski masks and a large,
black hold-all bag in the
weeks before the kidnapping.
And he'd researched how to
create rice in in cyanides,
which are both lethal
poisons, and if you've seen
breaking bad, you know
can't be made at home.
And he also had made
multiple searches for
Chloe ailing, black death
and sex trafficking.
The Herbert brothers took
out a loan of about 30
thousand dollars to finance
the kidnapping.
They rented the studio
space and several cars and
the farmhouse.
In a phone call with his mum
from prison, Lucas told her
to dispose of his car and
log into his online accounts
to delete incriminating
evidence.
And his password was
twat, twat, one.
Sure.
Sure.
Maybe, you know, maybe
that was like a set of
guinea pigs he had when he
was younger.
What's twat, twat, and
Polish?
I don't know.
And as we hinted out
before, it turned out that
Lucas Herbert was
decidedly not the high
ranking Mafiosa.
He had told Chloe he was
shocking.
I know.
His laptop proved that he
had created multiple
email accounts and
websites himself, including
the supposed black death
site with Chloe's auction
details.
And while there are rumours
out there that the black
death group is a real
group, somewhere out there
on the deep dark web, there
seems to be more of a
reddit urban legend than a
confirmed Mafia.
An interpol investigation
found no evidence of
them sex trafficking
girls online.
And as we hinted out
that the black death group
is a real group, somewhere
out there on the deep dark
web, there seems to be more
of a reddit urban legend
than a confirmed Mafia.
Although admittedly, the
deep web is a nightmare
to police and its sites
are unindexed.
But we can safely say that
even if it is real, even
if the black death group
is real, Lucas Herbert is
not one of its members.
Most likely, Herbert had
let his imagination run
wild and used it as
inspiration for his little
plot.
So whether he and his
brother Michael actually
thought the ruse could
earn them some real money
or if it was just some
sort of elaborate role
play, we'll talk about it
in a bit.
I'm honestly not totally
sure, I think it
possibly is both of those
things.
But whatever it is, one
thing we do know, Lucas
Herbert was a certified
nobody.
So with the black death
theory debunked, what did
Lucas have to say for
himself?
Well, his testimony was
a rare thing to say
about the black death
group.
So with the black death
theory debunked, what did
Lucas have to say for
himself?
Well, his testimony was
a rambling mess that
regularly contradicted
itself.
At one point he claimed
he was dying of leukemia
and had staged the
kidnapping to raise money
for treatment only to
admit later that that
wasn't true.
So it's fair to say
that the jury were
taking everything
Lucas had to say from
then on with a massive
pinch of salt.
Overall, Lucas echoed
the tabloid gossip to
claim that the whole thing
was a hoax cooked up
between him and Chloe
for the purpose of
boosting her career.
He claimed to have
met Chloe through
Facebook in 2015.
When they started
dating, their plot
was inspired by a film
called by any means, which
looks absolutely
shit, so we didn't
bother.
But according to IMDB,
it's about a
sea-less celebrity
faking their
abduction as a stunt.
Lucas insisted that
he was madly in love
with Chloe and did
everything to support her
goal of becoming
famous.
But here's the
thing.
The prosecution found
zero evidence of any
digitization
between Lucas and Chloe
before the kidnapping
and if it was on Facebook,
they would have.
Yeah.
So it was all
total bullshit.
Then the jury saw
right through him.
On the 11th of June 2018,
Lucas Herbert was found
guilty of kidnapping
and extortion.
Prosecutors described
him as a narcissist
and a fantasist who
was obsessed with
missailing and sentenced
him to a whopping
16 years and a
9-months in prison.
His brother Michael,
who was an accomplice
in the kidnapping and
transportation of Chloe
to the farmhouse, was
also convicted in 2019
and got 16 years and
eight months.
The judge highlighted that
the high sentences were
a reflection of the
grave risk posed to Chloe's
life.
The ketamine dose
and the suffocation in the
boot of the car could
absolutely have killed her.
Later, these sentences
were reduced.
Lucas ended up getting
12 years and Michael
to five.
So what the hell was
all this about?
Are we talking money,
obsession, both?
Honestly, we're
probably never know for sure.
We can certainly talk
about it, but
Lucas is sticking to his
guns, Chloe's sticking
to hers.
What is clear is that
Lucas Herbert's behaviour
was utterly bumbling
and incredibly bizarre.
As Chloe's lawyer put it,
quote,
what we thought at first
was that he was either
a genius or an
absolute idiot.
We attempted now to
exclude the first.
The police are certainly
convinced it's the second.
Whatever Lucas Herbert's
intentions, it turned out
to be a spectacular
amateur-hour flop.
You might think the
conviction would have put
the rumours about Chloe's
innocence to bed.
An Italian high court
found for her
brother's guilty of her
kidnap.
On paper, at least,
it was finally proven
that all of that did
happen to her.
But the public
weren't going to fully
listen to that.
Not even a little bit.
While Chloe felt
vindicated by the ruling,
she says that the hate
never went away.
In fact, she was
criticised even more
for what she did next.
Keen to ride high
on the publicity wave
that she had built.
Chloe cashed in
by publishing a book
about her story,
which is actually quite
an interesting read,
and she signed up for
the next season of
Celebrity Big Brother
less than two months
after Lucas was found
guilty.
Needless to say,
it didn't help
with the public's
perception of her as
an attention seeker,
and as we've seen so
many times before,
the court of public
opinion can be way
more persuasive
than any judge
is ruling.
So even with the law
on her side,
Chloe will always
be remembered,
as the girl who
faked a kidnapping.
So let's now
really look at the
evidence and consider
the possible theories
and what we think
could have happened to Chloe
ailing.
I think one theory
is that
Lucas Herbert was a
people trafficker
and he was really going to
sell Chloe ailing
into sex slavery.
And he's telling the truth,
maybe he wasn't
part of this like
big elaborate mafia gang,
but maybe he really was
going to sell her,
maybe he really did
feel bad for her,
and then he let her go.
Sure, let's call
that theory one.
Theory two,
Lucas Herbert was
absolutely obsessed
with Chloe ailing
and kidnapped her
in order to spend time
with her,
become her rescuer
and hero,
and also,
maybe get a bit of a
payoff.
So maybe he thinks,
like Chloe
leads him to believe
in order to survive,
you know,
not now,
but what I'm out,
maybe we'll see about
the two of us being together,
and also,
a hefty little
50,000 pound payoff.
Or Theory three,
Chloe was in on it
and the whole thing
was this scheme
cooked up between her
and Lucas Herbert
and his brother,
they thought they were
going to get some money,
maybe out of her
rich banker friend Rory
who would feel bad for her,
and then when that didn't work,
they shift gears
to saying,
we'll just get the money
out of, you know,
selling your story,
we'll split it
and we'll be together,
and maybe Chloe's
lying to Lucas
and she was just using him.
So let's talk about it.
I don't think
that Lucas Herbert,
if we're talking about
Theory one,
had the connections
to sell Chloe
into sex slavery.
It's not just like
actually selling something
on vintage,
like you're going to need
a network of people
that want to buy
this victim
that you've abducted,
like a bunch of
sadistic,
soundies, for example.
There's no evidence
whatsoever
that he had that kind
of network.
So I don't know.
And if he was going
to do this,
why not stick to the plan?
Apparently he was going
to get at least
$300,000 for her,
which is a lot more money
than, I guess,
Chloe probably
made even selling her story.
Now the idea that
Lucas Herbert
just fell in love
with Chloe
during her captivity,
and therefore,
that's why he let her go.
Well,
after she'd seen his face,
seems a bit implausible
if he really is this sex slave,
selling Matthew
so man,
even if it is a solo
Matthew so.
I don't know.
It just seems
implausible for people
that would be working
in the sex trafficking business.
When it comes to Chloe
and her involvement
or how much she knew,
it does seem
weird that the authorities
could find no record
of any communication
between her and Chloe
leading up to the abduction.
They had only met in Paris once.
Was that
when they concocted
this whole elaborate plot?
And then were they smart enough
to never speak
to each other again
until Milan?
Yeah, you see that a lot online
of people being like,
so what if there was no evidence
of communication
between the two of them?
Maybe they had burner phones
that the police never found?
Or maybe they had met in Paris
and planned the whole thing then,
and then, you know,
they just,
they just, like,
go ahead with it in Milan,
like, I don't know.
It seems pretty, like,
you need more texts than that
just to get people together
for a dinner.
Do you know what I mean?
Or,
was Paris just when her
met and became obsessed
with Chloe?
Chloe did have to admit
that she and her
had been Facebook friends
years before,
but she was trying
to make it
as a social media model.
So, basically,
she accepted any friends
across that came her way.
Yeah.
And this could also
back up the idea
that Herba had been
stalking Chloe
for some time
before he met her.
And there was
ketamine in her hair,
injection sites
on her wrists,
and ligature marks
around her arms
and her legs.
Those could have been
part of the ruse,
and even the fact
that it was a
near-lethal dose of ketamine
could just be chalked
up to stupidity
and recklessness.
It doesn't necessarily
mean that Chloe didn't know.
Yeah.
And a lot of people
point to, like,
the video interviews
of her
that you see on Good Morning
Britain and things
like that,
where she seems quite
sleepy.
And people, like,
she looks like a
drugie.
She looks like she's
a person who takes ketamine.
She looks like a person who
takes drugs.
Like, I'm not sold
by the fact that there was
ketamine in her
system as to the fact
that it was a kidnapping.
Now, look,
let's talk next
about the idea that Chloe
was compliant.
Like, with the shoe
shopping trip
or her sleeping next
to Lucas Herba
in that bed,
a lot of people
went into the fact,
like, look,
she's in on it.
She's in on it.
It's all just her
hoax, but, like, surely
that's just
classic survival tactics.
Yeah, that doesn't do
it for me at all.
To me, it doesn't
prove that Chloe was
involved.
She's also explained
that she was completely
scared to run off,
because people
all say, well, when you
took you into town for
that shoe shopping thing,
like, why didn't you just
signal to the woman who
was selling you the shoes
or try run away,
like, something,
you were in a town.
But she explains
that she was too
scared to run off,
black death operatives
are watching,
and someone will kill you
if you try to run away.
And also, she makes the
very fair point
that there was a language
barrier for her.
She felt, like,
if I do run away
from this man,
I need to be able to find
somebody who can speak
English to understand the
batshit crazy story
I'm about to tell them.
So, I don't know.
Again, her not running away
and seeking help
doesn't really move it to me
either.
So, next up,
it begs the question,
why did Lucas Herba
take her to breakfast
before the consulate
and take such a big risk?
He says,
I'm taking you to the consulate,
we're going to go there,
you're going to, you know,
stick to the story.
Why take her for breakfast?
I think this kind of fits
with the theory
that he's obsessed with her.
Like, if he's obsessed
with her, then maybe
this was just part
of the kind of girlfriend
experience that he was
looking for.
Maybe he wasn't ready
to end their time together.
Maybe he just wanted
one more breakfast with her
where he can hang out with her,
you know,
the fact that he tells her
to pretend to be his girlfriend,
just two people walking around.
There's no need
to pretend to be
in a romantic relationship.
They could have just been
two people hanging out together.
But the fact that he tells her
to do that,
I kind of feel like
there's something
he's getting out of it, right?
Yeah.
And look,
I do have to say
that there were some people
who did come to the trial
who said that they could hear
the couple laughing together
when they were having breakfast,
which obviously, you know,
points to the idea
that Chloe was in on it,
blah, blah, blah.
But I don't know.
Again, is that just Chloe
trying to keep him sweet?
Or are they really just that stupid
that they're sitting in a cafe
together laughing their heads off?
It's not enough.
No.
It's not enough of a
gotcha, I don't think
that she was laughing.
No.
No.
Like traumatized.
Exactly.
And also, I'm sorry,
like, was he just laughing?
Mm-hmm.
Like, I witnesses
a terribly terrible
remembering things.
Yes.
So I don't know.
There just isn't that much evidence
in my opinion pointing
to Chloe having been
in on it.
Like, everyone who points
to her having been
in on it, just the whole thing being a hoax,
they're just going
mainly of her behavior.
Mm-hmm.
And the idea that she longed for fame.
She absolutely is a victim
of the Amanda Knox effect, I think.
Yeah.
She's just not a...
She just doesn't translate
well on camera.
No.
She comes across very strangely.
She does come across a bit
disinterested.
Disinterested.
She does give off, like,
sleepy, drug eyes.
None of those things help her.
But really, all people have is
she doesn't sit right
with me the way she's speaking.
Why didn't she run away
when she had the opportunity?
And she was a model
who was always seeking fame.
Those are the three things
that people put together
and say that she was in on it.
That's hardly proof of anything.
Mm-hmm.
And there's hardly enough proof
there at all.
Like...
And all of those things can be true.
Yeah.
And this thing still can
have happened to her.
Yeah.
Exactly.
Exactly.
Just because she then does
capitalise on her 15 minutes of fame,
doesn't mean it didn't happen.
Which...
She's also...
She's a child, first of all.
And secondly, that's what
everyone will have been telling her to do.
Yeah.
Because they...
It is in their interest that she did that
because they're literally agents
and they take 10%.
Like, that isn't proof of anything.
No, it's not.
And if I was her in that situation
and you had been so let down
by Bargain Benfield Green.
And then this other
gold standard celebrity agent
appears from the mist
and is like,
I will help you.
I've done this before.
Yeah, of course.
Yeah, of course.
Absolutely.
And I think you also have to link
together her desire to
milk the 15 minutes of fame
and get exposure.
With also her trying to
combat the narrative
that was already being put
in the tabloids that she wasn't
telling the truth.
Like, that was also her
seeking out that fame
and going on these
different chat shows
and doing the book.
It was also her only
way to tell people
that she was telling the truth.
Yeah.
So it was a bit of a
light self-fulfilling prophecy.
And Herba had been
googling Chloe Ailing
and Black Death Gang
and how to administer
drugs and make them at home.
I'm certain that he was
completely obsessed with her.
He abducted her
and he wanted to be her hero.
I like,
salt, I buy it.
Yeah.
And also that's probably
why he didn't rape her
or force her to do anything
explicit with him
during captivity.
Maybe he believed
that if he treated her well,
she would fall
in love with him for real.
He had her for six days.
Like, completely isolated.
And yet he doesn't do that.
I think he's in it
for the long run.
I agree.
I really agree.
I think he was holding out
for a real relationship.
He'd probably read
about Stockholm Syndrome.
Yeah.
Which we misunderstood.
Not we as in society.
He has probably read about that.
And been like,
oh, that's how.
That's how you form
like an unbreakable bond
with a woman
that can't be undone.
You kidnapped them.
Yep.
And then their brain does it for you.
So yes, that's 100%
I agree with that.
I agree with that idea
that I think he is like
hoping that Chloe will be like,
I turnly grateful to him
and they'll go off
and right off into the sunset together.
Some people could say
that the fact that he doesn't
physically harm her
in any way.
He's even like,
like Chloe says,
he's very gentlemanly
with her.
He never sexually assaults her.
He never does anything.
He never tortures her.
Some people I have seen
also point to that saying,
well, that's clear evidence
of Chloe was involved.
What sort of man
abducts a woman
and then, you know,
who is this unhinged
and who you're saying
is obsessed with her.
But then has herself
a strength not to harm her
in any way.
I see.
Like if anything,
some people say
that seems too unbelievable.
The thing that makes more sense
is that they're in on it together.
And that's why he never hurts her.
Okay.
Yeah.
And look, honestly,
if I'm being totally honest,
when I first heard about this case,
I definitely thought
the Chloe was involved.
I've had my moments here.
Yeah.
I definitely thought
the Chloe was involved.
But the more I have read
about it, the more,
like, you know,
we've gone through
all of the videos
of her speaking about it
and, you know,
I read her book
and written this case.
I don't think so.
I don't think so.
I do not think
she was involved.
I think those who point
the finger at her
have absolutely no evidence.
Like I said,
they only have vibes
that I don't like
how this feels.
I think personally,
the blame for all this
lies squarely
at the door for the
British tabloid press.
They set her up
to be the villain
of this whole story.
Now, of course,
we shouldn't take everything
we hear at face value.
It's human nature
to question things
and Chloe's story
was pretty fucking crazy.
I understand why people
couldn't believe it.
The idea that
she might be
making this whole thing
up was certainly
an enticing narrative.
And we all absolutely
laughed it up.
But the media
was shamelessly
biased against Chloe.
Tabloid journalist,
Nick Pisa,
has tried to defend
network by claiming
the stories were just
exposing the holes
in the story
and then letting
readers make up
their own mind.
No, it wasn't.
The headlines were
she made it up.
So yeah.
Come on.
Yeah.
So no, I think
they just wanted a
juicier story
than this woman actually
being kidnapped.
And the juicier story was
she was kidnapped
and she was fucking
in on it.
So no,
at full show.
For Chloe,
the media backlash
left far more lasting
scars than the actual
kidnapped.
But in recent years,
there has been a gradual
conflict on how her
stories talked about.
In 2024,
the BBC aired a drama
based on her story,
and Chloe was an
adviser for it,
with writer Georgia
Lister saying
that she hoped
the show would
vindicate Chloe
to viewers.
And in 2025,
Chloe starred in her own
BBC documentary,
my unbelievable kidnapping.
Perhaps the biggest
thing to come out
of that documentary
was the reveal
that Chloe has recently
been diagnosed
with autism spectrum
disorder.
That makes a lot of sense.
Yes.
It also makes sense
when you put it
in place with people
saying,
Lucas Harbour is not
a genius.
He is not a genius.
And he is telling you,
you know, he's part of
this mafia thing.
How did you not question
any of that?
When he's telling you
there's black death
operatives everywhere
who are going to shoot you,
how are you believing
that?
I think if she does
engage with like,
black and white thinking
of like, somebody is
telling me this thing,
and I literally believe
it to be true.
I can understand why she is
just like,
yeah, why would I question
it?
I think it makes even
more sense.
And I think it also
makes sense how she
presents herself
in some of those
interviews.
And for Chloe,
the pieces
of the puzzle
all fell into place.
That diagnosis explains
why she can come
across as unemotional
in a way that people
find hard to relate to,
as well as her
flat affect
and a tendency to
smile at inappropriate
times.
Chloe says,
she gets why people find
it hard to understand
her,
because she's only
just beginning to
understand herself.
But as her childhood,
she says in the
documentary,
this diagnosis
shouldn't be the reason
people suddenly
decide to believe
Chloe's story.
That's a really
fair point.
Yeah.
Because Chloe seems
so outwardly strong,
it's easy to forget
that what she went
through was a
genuinely traumatic
experience that would
have also affected
her responses.
As the case is judge,
Ilio Mancini
Pinchini says,
interpreting the
calm demeanor that
Chloe showed,
as a sign of the
absence of trauma
is a mistaken
mechanism.
Neurodivergent
or not,
Chloe should have
been given the grace
to react in a way
that felt right to her
without being
eaten alive.
Today,
Chloe is 28 years old
and still posing up
a storm as a model.
The experience
changed her forever,
making her
less willing to
trust strangers.
She doesn't
like to work
with people,
she doesn't know,
instead preferring to
focus on her own
social media content
and only fans,
where she gets to
call all of the shots.
Still, Chloe refuses
to see herself as a
victim,
living by the mantra
that nothing can
touch her after what
she's faced.
She survived not just
a kidnapping,
but a full-blown
media onslaught,
where she was cast
as the anti-heroin
in her own story.
And honestly,
if I can get it,
Chloe,
take a bow.
That is so
difficult.
Yeah, I've
gone on a big journey
with this story.
I think I have,
as well.
I can see why people
are suspicious,
and it is
one of those
cases that
can sit in the back
of people's minds,
as like,
they half know
about it.
And it's like,
oh, but didn't she
fake it?
And that then becomes
the conversation,
and so few people are
going to be like,
well, no, actually,
here are all of these
very specific points.
And even if you do
know those things,
you don't say them
because you don't want
to be unbearable,
no at all.
Yeah.
So it just evolves
as this, like,
half-remembered thing
that defined her
for far too long.
Absolutely.
You see enough pictures
of her face on the front
page of tabloids
with she faked it?
Yes.
Why would anybody question
what was the actual evidence
that she faked it?
There isn't any.
So hopefully,
we have set the record
straight today.
We may be wrong,
maybe Chloe fucking did.
But I am not satisfied,
at all,
that there is enough evidence
to persuade me that
that's the case.
No, I'm not either.
No.
So that's it guys.
Thank you very
much for listening.
We hope you enjoyed that
and learned something
and we'll see you next week
for another episode of
Ciao!

RedHanded
