Page 31 - ARUBA TODAY

PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 9 august 2017
A31

Model’s reps say her ordeal was real despite shoe shopping

By COLLEEN BARRY and JILL Ayling’s account of a star- to extort money and falsi-
LAWLESS tling ordeal have garnered fying documents, pending
Associated Press international media atten- an indictment.
MILAN (AP) — A model tion since details about the Police said they are looking
who claimed she was kid- case emerged over the for as many as four accom-
napped in Italy and held weekend. plices.
captive in a remote farm- Police released a dra- Both Ayling’s Italian lawyer
house was spotted shop- matic narrative about and the talent agent who
ping with her alleged cap- how the woman was al- sent her to Italy lashed out
tor during the time she legedly lured to Milan with Tuesday at skeptics who
said she was being held, the promise of a model- have expressed doubts
according to court docu- ing job, then drugged at a about her story.
ments obtained Tuesday supposed photographer’s The lawyer and agent said
by The Associated Press. studio on July 11, zipped the incredible details have
Chloe Ayling initially told inside a canvas bag and borne out under prosecu- In this image made from video taken on Sunday, Aug. 6, 2017,
Milan police she was held transported to a farmhouse torial and investigatory model Chloe Ayling speaks with the media outside of her house
for six days, at times with near Turin. scrutiny. in Surrey, England.
her hands and feet cuffed The young woman said “I can assure everybody Associated Press
to a dresser, until one of her when she regained con- that it was real and very
kidnappers released her at sciousness in the trunk of a frightening for all con- called a “glamour model,” demand for $300,000.
the British consulate in Mi- station wagon, her jeans cerned,” agent Phil Green specializing in scantily clad Ayling told police she first
lan on July 17. and sneakers were missing of the Supermodel Agency or topless photo shoots. She met Herba, a 30-year-old
But on the second day of and she was wearing just said. has appeared in British tab- Polish national, briefly when
questioning, detectives her pink body suit and gray The lawyer, Francesco loids and worked around she was brought to Paris for
presented the 20-year-old socks. She said she was told Pesce, said his client had Europe. another modeling job, to
with a statement from a later she had been photo- been threatened with She told Italian police she promote motorcycles, ear-
saleswoman who said she graphed so she could be death throughout the or- does about four photo lier this year and he came
sold shoes to the model auctioned off online, ac- deal and decided it was sessions a month, often to pay her cab fare at the
and the main suspect in cording to her deposition. better to cooperate with abroad, and had just re- airport.
her abduction the day be- Milan police, citing Ay- Herba. turned from Dubai when After his arrest in Milan, Her-
fore Ayling turned up at the ling’s description of the “She did testify that she the Milan job was sched- ba told police that he can-
consulate. events, said her kidnappers went with her captor to uled. celled the Paris job when
In tears, the young wom- also informed her she had buy shoes and buy grocer- Green said the Milan photo he realized that a group of
an told investigators she been captured by a crimi- ies, and this does appear shoot seemed legitimate. three Romanians affiliated
couldn’t give a “reason- nal group called “Black to be strange. I understand The person who made the with the alleged criminal
able explanation” for why Death” and that she would this and I will continue to re- booking had “a website, group intended to kidnap
she had omitted the shop- be held for ransom or sold spond to this,” Pesce said. previous pictures, details of Ayling, his official state-
ping trip, but said she con- on the clandestine “dark “She was told by this man his studio, details of what ment says.
sidered the man who ac- web.” that there were many peo- the shoot was going to be, He said he called the mod-
companied her the best The main suspect, Lukasz ple of this ‘Black Death’ or- times, locations, fee — ev- el’s hotel, pretending to
chance of gaining free- Pawel Herba, freed her at ganization around her, and erything,” he said. be the photographer hired
dom. the British Consulate in Mi- even if she tried to flee, she But the day after Ayling to work with her, to say
The arrest of a suspect in lan. He has been arrested was going to die.” was due to return, Green his equipment had been
the alleged abduction and on charges of kidnapping Ayling is what in Britain is says he received a ransom stolen.q

Sinead O’Connor pleads for

help, says she’s living in motel

By PATRICK MAIRS ing, fighting — like all the ... to be brought home,”
Associated Press millions and millions that I she said through tears.
Sinead O’Connor emotion- know I’m one of — to stay O’Connor said she was liv-
ally pleaded for help from alive every day,” she said in ing in a New Jersey Travelo-
her family and opened up the video. dge and later posted the
about her mental illness in O’Connor lamented what address of a Travelodge in
a Facebook video posted she described is a lack of South Hackensack.
from a New Jersey motel support from loved ones, South Hackensack Police
she had been living in. saying that “strangers on Capt. Robert Kaiser said
The video is the latest pub- Facebook” are kinder to Tuesday that officers con-
lic glimpse of the singer’s her than her own family. ducted a welfare check, In this Oct. 5, 2014 file photo, Irish singer Sinead O’Connor per-
ongoing struggle with men- She asked her adult chil- but O’Connor wasn’t in forms during the Italian State RAI TV program “Che Tempo che
tal health problems. dren and their fathers to her room at the time. He Fa”, in Milan, Italy.
The 50-year-old Irish singer make an effort to bring her said she is no longer stay- Associated Press
says in the 12-minute video home to Ireland. ing there and police don’t
posted Thursday that she “It should not be accept- know where she is currently be made on the singer’s O’Connor has been open
was staying alive for the able to any man who living. An email sent to her behalf, said the singer is about her mental health
sake of others, like her psy- knows me and claims to agent wasn’t immediately safe and not suicidal. problems over the years
chiatrist, and if it were up to love and care about me returned. A follow-up Face- “She is surrounded by love and previously said she was
her, she’d “be gone.” that I’m still sitting here after book post on O’Connor’s and receiving the best of diagnosed with bipolar dis-
“I’m fighting, fighting, fight- two years and I’m begging page late Monday, said to care,” the post read. order. q