I Had To Make My Kidnapper Fall In Love With Me

After two days of being chained to a chest of drawers, Chloe Ayling agreed to share a bed with her captor.

"The more we started talking, the more the bond was kind of forming and once I realised he was starting to like me, I knew I had to use that to my advantage," she says.

Ms Ayling, 20, from south London, says she was lured to Milan on the promise of a photoshoot by Lukasz Herba, 30, last July.

But she was injected with the drug ketamine, stripped, handcuffed, stuffed in a holdall bag, driven 120 miles (193km) in the boot of a car to a remote farmhouse.

Ms Ayling says it was "horrendous" when she arrived at the house and Herba said she would be sold as a sex slave unless she found 300,000 euros (£265,000).

"I thought what he was saying was all true and I didn't doubt him for a second because he was so detailed in responses to my questions," she says.

But he also asked her if he could kiss her and if they could have a relationship.

"I thought this is my chance to get out," Ms Ayling says.

"Once I saw his reaction to what I was saying that things could happen in the future - he was acting excited and really looking forward to it and always talking about it - it was that response that made me realise I needed to keep doing that."

When he realised the ransom was not going to be paid, he released her and drove her to the British consulate in Milan.

While they were waiting for it to open, witnesses reported seeing them laughing and joking in a cafe.

It might seem strange, Ms Ayling says, "but why would you be 'offish' with the person who is starting to have feelings for you and is relying on that to release you?

"I had to do everything I could to make him fall in love with me."

By Mercy K.