An Italian court has found a Polish man guilty of kidnapping British model Chloe Ayling, sentencing him to 16 years and nine months in prison.
Prosecutors in the case of Lukasz Herba said Chloe Ayling was drugged and kidnapped when she showed up at an address in Milan for a modeling job, then held for six days at a farmhouse in the neighboring Piedmont region before being released at the British consulate in Milan.
Defendant Herba, 30, had claimed Ayling agreed to the scheme to boost her career. In a statement read out by her lawyer after the sentencing, the model from Coulsdon, south London, said she felt "vindicated".
Italian prosecutor Paolo Storari on Monday demanded 16 years and eight months in jail for Herba, saying he based sentence on the possibility that 20-year-old Miss Ayling could have died during the July 11-17, 2017 kidnapping.
He said she was drugged with ketamine, which knocked her out, then closed up inside a canvas bag and transported to the farmhouse, where she was handcuffed to the furniture for at least the first night.
Herba denied the charges, claiming that Miss Ayling agreed to the scheme to boost her career. But on Monday afternoon, the court found him guilty.
Adrian Sington, who represents Ms Ayling at Kruger Cowne, said: "This has been an incredible burden on her shoulders for the last year in the face of media criticism of her motivation and this is vindication - her story is true.
"It means now she can get on with her life. It's hard if you're being painted in the press as a liar and now she's able to be able to say, 'I know it's a bizarre story but it's a true one'.
"One of the difficulties with a psychopath and a narcissist, as Mr Herba is, is that he behaves in such a way that it's almost impossible to believe that someone could be so stupid and so, in some ways, it's not surprising that the media found Chloe's story difficult to believe.
"Let's not forget she was bundled into a suitcase, injected with ketamine in the boot of a car and thought she was going to die."
Herba said he was in love with the model, and they had concocted the kidnap plot to help her overcome financial difficulties after the birth of her son.
"I never hurt the girl. I was not violent with her," Herba said. "If she felt forced verbally in any way, I am very sorry. But it certainly was not as Chloe has described."
"I was in love and I was hoping that once her fame took off that she would repay me with feelings and we would share the money," he said.
Previous testimony showed that the two had met on Facebook and had met at least once in person before her pregnancy.
According to prosecutors, Miss Ayling was lured to Milan with the promise of a modeling gig and then drugged when she showed up at a mocked-up photographic studio. She was zipped inside a canvas pack and transported to a secluded farmhouse in neighboring Piedmont.
There she was held for six days before Herba released her at the British consulate in Milan. In his initial statement to police, he said he did so out of sympathy for the fact she was a mother.
Ayling told investigators that she never tried to escape, even when she accompanied Herba into a store to buy shoes, because she was terrified, believing his threats that he was part of a bigger criminal gang that had eyes on her constantly.
She said she had been told she would be auctioned online since she was not able to come up with €300,000 in ransom. She said Herba showed her photos of other girls who were being sold over the deep web.
But in his shifting story line, Herba also testified previously that he had concocted the alleged deep web criminal group "Black Death," and that his brother was helping him in the scheme agreed by Miss Ayling.
Italian prosecutors are seeking the brother's extradition from Britain.
Herba said he didn't tell police that Ayling was in on the scheme during his initial statements because he believed she would come forward.
During closing arguments, his lawyer, Katia Kolakowska, cited an email she received from a US film producer who pointed out that Miss Ayling's story closely matches the plot of a movie titled By Any Means, that was released about eight weeks before the 2017 kidnapping.
Storari, in his closing arguments, noted that Herba had invested at least €10,000 in the kidnapping, taking into account real estate rentals and travel. #
He said it was unrealistic that Herba would have done so only to get ransom from a young woman without any means.
The prosecutor also cited Herba's purchase of two ski masks, which Miss Ayling said she saw kidnappers wearing when she was freed from the canvas bag, and the exchange of a note with his brother telling him to clean the trunk of the car well to make sure that there were no traces of her hair.