Where is Lukasz Herba now?
In July 2017, a British glamour model named Chloe Ayling was kidnapped after she arrived in Milan, Italy, for a photo shoot.
Chloe was abducted by Lukasz Herba who orchestrated the crime with his brother Michal.
The story behind the kidnapping is the subject of the new BBC documentary Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story.
In this article, we take a brief look at this true crime case and ask the question: Where is Lukasz Herba now?
What happened to Chloe Ayling?
Chloe Ayling, a 27-year-old model from Coulsdon, Croydon, travelled to Milan in July 2017 under the belief that she had been hired for a photoshoot.
On arrival, she was abducted by two men who claimed to be members of a criminal organization known as The Black Death Group.
When Chloe failed to return home, her mother contacted her agent, Phil Green, who didn’t know that Chloe’s latest ‘client’ was a criminal.
The next day, Green received an email from The Black Death Group telling him they would auction off Chloe as a sex slave on the dark web if they didn’t receive €300,000 in ransom money.
Green then contacted the Milan police who investigated the crime.
Six days later, Lukasz dropped Chloe off at the Milan consulate. Footage also emerged of them holding hands together, leading some to believe that she had faked the abduction.
But according to Chloe, she had been drugged by Lukasz and Michal and taken to a farmhouse miles from Milan. Lukasz told her she was to be auctioned as a sex slave and warned her not to escape. He then told her he wanted to leave the Black Death Group and that the only way he could escape was by raising the ransom money. (source)
When speaking to The Guardian, Chloe told the reporter that Lukasz promised to help her. She said:
“He always made out that he was the one who saved me. I looked at him like, what would I do without him? He said that if I escaped, not only would I die, he would as well. He was the only person who seemed to care that I would be free.”
After several days, Lukasz received the ransom money. He then walked Chloe to the consulate where she was supposed to tell authorities that Lukasz was her friend and that she had escaped from her kidnapper.
This plan didn’t work as Lukasz and Michal were later arrested for kidnapping.
What happened to Lukasz Herba?
Lukasz denied that he had abducted Chloe and said that he acted out of love for her and that they had planned the kidnap together because she was cash-strapped.
Despite these claims, he was still charged with the crime. On 11 June 2018, he was convicted of kidnapping and given a prison sentence of 16 years and 9 months. His brother Michal received a similar sentence of 16 years and 8 months. Both sentences were later reduced on appeal.
Where is Lukasz Herba now?
According to The Express, Lukasz currently has 12 years and 1 month left of his prison sentence. Michal, meanwhile, has 5 years and 8 months left to serve.
Where is Chloe Ayling now?
Following her ordeal, Chloe went on to find TV fame on Big Brother in 2018. That same year, she wrote a book describing the terrifying events that took place after she visited Milan. You can find that book here.
It’s believed Chloe is still working as a model. She hopes the new BBC documentary, Kidnapped: The Chloe Ayling Story, will “be a lesson for people not to judge victims based on the way they act or react.” (source)
This is in response to the people who called her a liar following her return home after the abduction.
What do you think about this case? Let us know in the comments below.