British model doing ‘topless photoshoot to cope with kidnap trauma’ – agent
Chloe Ayling’s agent has said it is “hard” to answer whether she has any doubts about the model’s alleged kidnapping in Milan, and has revealed the 20-year-old did a topless photoshoot on Tuesday as a way of “coping” with the trauma.
Ayling shot to fame over the weekend after saying she had been auctioned by a criminal gang as a sex slave on the dark web for more than £230,000 ($298,000), but was released when her captors in Italy found out she was a mother.
Since then, doubts have emerged around the story, with questions being raised about why Ayling had been on a shopping trip for shoes and groceries with her kidnapper during the time she was allegedly being held captive.
Asked on This Morning whether she had any doubts about the story, her agent, Carla Bellucci, said: “I mean, that is so hard. I’ve only spoken to Chloe briefly. Um, that is such a hard one.”
She went on to describe her as a “beautiful girl… just a little naive.” She added that “like everybody, they go into this industry wanting to be famous. I think she was willing to go all the way, which obviously, she wants to be known which is fine.”
In a separate interview with BBC Derbyshire, Bellucci said she understood Ayling was doing a Page 3 photoshoot on Tuesday.
“For me, I wouldn’t – I think that would be the last thing on my mind,” Bellucci added.
She said she had spoken to Ayling on Sunday and discussed meeting up, but she believed she couldn’t do so today due to the photoshoot.
“She has her reasons, and maybe it’s her way of dealing what’s happened to her – to get back out there, maybe it’s her way of coping.”
Ayling had “always wanted to be a glamor model” and that hasn’t changed, Bellucci said.
Ayling’s lawyer, Francesco Pesce, said he believes she is telling the truth and that the authorities have satisfied themselves about any doubts in her story. He said anyone who thinks she is lying is “evil.”
“The story is frankly incredible. Why would the captor bring the detainee to the police, to the consulate? However, everything matched out and the story turned out to be true,” he told Sky News.
Pesce said Ayling’s story had convinced the prosecution, the police, and the judge who had conducted pre-trial hearings enough that proceedings were still ongoing.
“There must be some clarification on some elements, however I believe the investigators will be excellent in doing their job and everything will emerge.”
He also addressed questions around the shopping trip. He said that despite her being let out into public, she did not feel safe enough to escape.
“What she told me and the police before me is that she was told by the captor… that other people that were affiliated to this Black Death organization were watching her.
“So even if they tried to flee she would be killed. So that’s duress. That’s a state of psychological subjugation.”
He also responded to claims Ayling had met her captor previously, when they had both been caught up in a terrorist shooting in Paris in April.
“There was no relationship between the two. And what I believe is the investigators thoroughly searched everything, and if they had any doubts that she was involved to some extent she wouldn’t have gone back to England.”
