British model Chloe Ayling's kidnapper sent a email threatening to auction her as a sex slave to the Russian mafia unless a ransom was paid for her safe return, MailOnline can reveal.

Chloe's former agent Phil Green revealed 'Black Death' kidnapper Lukasz Herba said he had five days to pay the money or the 20-year-old beauty would be sold the highest bidder.

The model boss claims Herba posed as Italian photographer called Andre Lazio and paid €1,000 up front to lure Chloe to a fake photo shoot at his bogus Bessis Mafique Studio in Milan.

Speaking to MailOnline, Mr Green said: 'Chloe had gone to Milan for the photoshoot on the Tuesday.

'The man checked out and it all seemed fine, I didn't suspect anything was wrong. 

'But then I didn't hear from her on Tuesday and by Wednesday morning I hadn't heard from her. 'Then at 10am on Wednesday morning this email landed in my inbox. It read, 'We've got Chloe Ayling. We are Black Death group. It is of supreme interest that you raise money. You should contact [three names] or she will be sold at auction on Sunday and handed to the Russian mafia. It went on: 'We require you to come up with an offer by Sunday or she will be placed for auction.'

Mr Green, a former lawyer who runs Supermodel Agency, said he was 'absolutely terrified'.

'I didn't know what to think. I spent five days thinking she was dead. Talk about sleep deprivation. I hardly slept for a week. It was a difficult time.'

He added: 'It has not got any easier since she has got back. We didn't expect for this to go global and get press from around the world.

He said Herba contacted his agency in March and booked Chloe for a motorbike themed shoot in Paris on April 22.

Herba specifically asked for Miss Ayling and paid up front for her trip to Paris where where she was met at the airport by chauffeur-driven car and stayed in a hotel off the Champs-Elysees. 

But that night the French capital was hit by a terror attack and a police officer was killed and two more were wounded close to her hotel. 

Mr Green said: 'The next morning Herba phoned to say that his studio had been ransacked in the chaos of the terror attack and his motorbike had been stolen. He said the shoot was cancelled. 

A woman who is suing Usher for failing to tell her he had herpes before they allegedly had sex had earlier proclaimed on social media that she needed money.

Quantasia Sharpton, a 21-year-old mother of three, spoke out about the new lawsuit against the singer at a press conference in New York on Monday.

Sharpton is one of three alleged victims - two women and a man - suing Usher but she is the only one identified by name in the lawsuit. 

The lawsuit, obtained by DailyMail.com, claims Usher had vaginal sex with at least one of the two women and he had 'unprotected sex' with the man.

The three plaintiffs claim they had unprotected sex, or oral sex, with Usher because he is a 'revered celebrity in their eyes who they believed could be loved and trusted'. They all allege that Usher failed to inform them he had herpes, an incurable sexually-transmitted disease, before engaging in the alleged sexual encounters. The lawsuit makes note of recent news reports that Usher admitted in court documents in 2012 to having the disease and that he settled a $20million herpes lawsuit several years ago with a woman. 

They claim Usher has never publicly denied having herpes, or made an effort to contact them to confirm or deny the reports, the lawsuit states.  

The lawsuit states the alleged victims have suffered severe emotional distress, birthing complications, stress, depression and anxiety about contracting or being exposed to herpes. 

Quantasia said she had always loved Usher's 'artistry and music,' so her friends took her to a concert of his to celebrate her 19th birthday a few years ago. 

She says she was selected from the crowd to go backstage before the show and meet Usher - real name Usher Raymond - because of the birthday crown she was wearing. 

Later, she says a security guard came up to her and asked for her number because Usher was 'interested in her'. 

After the show, she says she got a call from a blocked number and it was Usher, asking her what hotel she was staying in and the room number. About an hour later, Sharpton says Usher arrived at her hotel and they had 'sexual contact'. But after he left, she 'never heard from him again'. 

Sharpton said she was shocked last month to learn that Usher possibly has herpes.

When Sharpton read about that case, she contacted Lisa Bloom to see what her legal options were, even though she tested negative for the virus when she had a child last year.

While Sharpton doesn't have the disease, at least one of the three clients that Bloom is representing say they caught the disease, and blame Usher for it. 

They are the mysterious online crime syndicate that claims to be able to offer 'services' including assassinations, bombings, arms dealing and trafficking.

But Black Death has come under the spotlight after it was linked to the kidnapping of a British model, 20, in Milan and even gave her a note explaining why she was being released.  is unclear whether police found a physical copy of the letter or whether it was on a computer, but it said the model had been captured 'by mistake' and should 'under no circumstances' have been kidnapped, adding one of its 'well respected' members pleaded her case.

Black Death offers the sexual services of women for auction on the dark web and are very hostile to people asking questions. 

Technology writer Joseph Cox previously tried to investigate Black Death in 2015 when he attempted to enter a human trafficking auction to discover how the syndicate worked and whether they were legitimate.

After finding them through a link on Reddit, he posed as a customer and asked to be involved in the auction, sending an encrypted email stating 'I'm interested in the girl, want to see more photos first'. Writing for Motherboard he revealed a girl called 'Nicole' was put up for auction starting at £115,000 alongside pictures of a blonde woman who was topless and tied up to a wire frame by ropes with her arms behind her back.

Another woman was put on auction with bids starting at £140,000, Mr Cox wrote to them claiming he was a middleman acting for another business.

Their response was 'Nice try Europol' and after several more emails in which he claimed to possess hundreds of thousands of dollars in Bitcoin, they still rejected him, emailing him 'Do not bother us again', before the link to the site stopped working.    

• Black Death group explained why they released British model in a note to her
• They said they were being 'generous' and freeing her 'because she is a mother'
• But they warned her to be 'respectful of them' and not go to the authorities 
• Group surrounded in mystery but claim to offer wide range of criminal services
• They say they offer assassinations, drug dealing, bombings and arms dealing 

A father suspected of murdering his five-week-old son killed himself after giving police conflicting accounts of how the baby died, an inquest heard today.

Cooper Eddie Johnson-Hicks died of brain injury from multiple skull fractures after being rushed to hospital by parents Bryony Johnson, 23, and Tristan Hicks, 20, who were both arrested on suspicion of murder.

After Cooper's death on June 26 2016, both were arrested and bailed, with the case against Miss Johnson being dropped in December.

Mr Hicks was bailed and referred to a psychiatric unit, but was re-arrested upon his release on July 21 and killed himself in his father’s garage while on bail two days later.

He was found unconscious on the floor with a ligature round his neck and died of an hypoxic brain injury. 

An inquest into Cooper’s death heard Mr Hicks gave different versions of the same story to different people and squirmed when questioned by police.

Mr Hicks, of St Blazey, Cornwall, originally told police Cooper had flown out of his arms and landed on the other side of the room.

He later claimed he had tripped and landed on top of the child. Mr Hicks then told psychiatric nurse Elizabeth Evans he had been drinking with Ms Johnson at home and tripped carrying Cooper as danced to cheer up the crying children.

In a statement read out at the inquest Ms Evans said: 'He sobbed and said he and his partner were at home with his children and he was making some milk for Cooper.

'Both children were crying and he was trying to cheer them up. He was pretending to be an aeroplane and dancing.

'Tristan said: "It’s all my fault, all my fault. Life will never be the same. But later, during a police interview, Mr Hicks denied that version of events.

He said: 'I wasn’t dancing at the time. I got the stuff out and carried it all down from the car, then I got Cooper because he was crying. I got a bottle and went back but tripped on the Moses basket.

'I picked him up straight away and he seemed fine. I picked him up thinking "s***, s***, s***".'

The transcript of a police interview with Tristan was read out during the inquest in Truro, Cornwall.

Megan is marking her 36th birthday with a romantic getaway at a 'honeymoon hotspot' in Botswana after being whisked away by her prince.

But Meehan Markle has reminded fans her life hasn't always been a fairytale after opening up in a candid interview about race.

The Suits actress spoke to Pride magazine about growing up 'ethnically ambiguous' with a black parent - and being at the receiving end of racist jokes.

Miss Markle, who also recalled her mother African-American mother Doria being called the N-word, told the magazine she felt an 'obligation' to speak about being half-black. Appearing on the cover of Pride magazine's July issue, Meghan told how she has overheard racist jokes from people who did not realise she had a black parent.

She said: 'I don’t care if I’m fair-skinned and I don’t care what it is, that’s who I am and that’s my family.

'My hope is for the world to get to a place where it’s colour blind.' 

Meghan may soon have something to celebrate as bookies have slashed the odds on Harry getting down on one knee this week. Insiders say Harry has had marriage on his mind for months - but this week's romantic getaway has sent the rumour mill into overdrive. 

After wrapping filming for Suits last month, Meghan flew to London, where the pair then went onto southern Africa for their adventure. The southern African country is close to Harry's heart thanks to his work with wildlife conservation - and he has also romanced former flames Natalie Pinkham, Chelsy Davy and Cressida Bonas there.

According to the Sunday express Ladbrokes have cut the odds to 6/4 that Harry will propose to his actress girlfriend while on holiday.

A spokesperson for the betting company said: 'It’s a case of when and not if Harry pops the question and royal punters are convinced it will be while the happy couple are on holiday.' 

The pair met in Orlando, Florida in May 2016 and have gone to great lengths to keep their trans-Atlantic love affair under wraps.

While Meghan celebrated turning 36 on Friday, her boyfriend will turn 33 in just a few weeks' time.

The New York Attorney General has shut down the National Children's Leukemia Foundation, after an investigation revealed the crooked founder had been pocketing nearly $1million a year while only spending 1 per cent of donations to help children struggling with cancer

National Children's Leukemia Foundation founder Zvi 'Steve' Shor has been running the charity out of his basement in Brooklyn, New York, masquerading the non-profit as a large organization in order to solicit some $13million in donations since 2009, according to court papers filed Monday by the attorney general.

While the foundation claims to operate a bone marrow registry and fulfill the dying wishes of terminally ill children, authorities claim the charity has only put 1 per cent of its donations towards charitable causes while Shor has pocketed up to $1million for himself and his family, nothing is more shameful than pocketing millions of dollars donated by good-hearted people who just wanted to help children afflicted with a terminal illness,' New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said in the statement, after successfully winning a court order to shut the sham organization down. 

Shor started the charity in 1991, following the death of his son from leukemia. 

He then continued to run the charity from his basement, raising $13million between April 2009 and March 2013. 

According to court papers, $7.5million of that money was paid to fundraising companies who organized events for the charity. During this period, Shor was also paying himself a $600,000 salary while sending an additional $655,000 to a 'shell organization in Israel' run by his sister 'allegedly for research purposes'. 

The organization has also been accused of faking audit reports, when no audits were conducted. 

Shor ran the organization as president until 2010, when he was replaced by accountant and auditor Yehuda Gutwein when it was revealed that Shor had been convicted of bank fraud in 1999. 

In addition to Shor, the other charity organizations named in the suit include Gutwein, Shor's son Shlomo Shor and Shlomo Donn. Shor has fiercely denied the allegations that he was running a scam foundation in a statement to ABC news  

'Our small organization helped many families over the past 20 years. I launched NCLF after the death of my teenage son to leukemia. I personally took no salary for over eight years. I wanted to help as many families as I could who had children suffering from cancer.

'We feel we are being used as an "example" due to the telemarketing fundraising laws and fundraising market over which we have no control. Our fundraising contracts were all filed with the attorney general who has long known their terms. We expect to be vindicated in court when the full story is explained,' Shor said.

Picking through a mountain of huge rocks with his tiny bare hands, the exhausted little boy makes a pitiful sight.

His name is Dorsen and he is one of an army of children, some just four years old, working in the vast polluted mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo, where toxic red dust burns their eyes, and they run the risk of skin disease and a deadly lung condition. Here, for a wage of just 8p a day, the children are made to check the rocks for the tell-tale chocolate-brown streaks of cobalt – the prized ingredient essential for the batteries that power electric cars.

And it’s feared that thousands more children could be about to be dragged into this hellish daily existence – after the historic pledge made by Britain to ban the sale of petrol and diesel cars from 2040 and switch to electric vehicles. It heralds a future of clean energy, free from pollution but – though there can be no doubting the good intentions behind Environment Secretary Michael Gove’s announcement last month – such ideals mean nothing for the children condemned to a life of hellish misery in the race to achieve his target.

Dorsen, just eight, is one of 40,000 children working daily in the mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). The terrible price they will pay for our clean air is ruined health and a likely early death.

Almost every big motor manufacturer striving to produce millions of electric vehicles buys its cobalt from the impoverished central African state. It is the world’s biggest producer, with 60 per cent of the planet’s reserves.

The cobalt is mined by unregulated labour and transported to Asia where battery manufacturers use it to make their products lighter, longer-lasting and rechargeable. The planned switch to clean energy vehicles has led to an extraordinary surge in demand. While a smartphone battery uses no more than 10 grams of refined cobalt, an electric car needs 15kg (33lb). Goldman Sachs, the merchant bank, calls cobalt ‘the new gasoline’ but there are no signs of new wealth in the DRC, where the children haul the rocks brought up from tunnels dug by hand.

Adult miners dig up to 600ft below the surface using basic tools, without protective clothing or modern machinery. Sometimes the children are sent down into the narrow makeshift chambers where there is constant danger of collapse.

Cobalt is such a health hazard that it has a respiratory disease named after it – cobalt lung, a form of pneumonia which causes coughing and leads to permanent incapacity and even death.

Even simply eating vegetables grown in local soil can cause vomiting and diarrhoea, thyroid damage and fatal lung diseases, while birds and fish cannot survive in the area.

No one knows quite how many children have died mining cobalt in the Katanga region in the south-east of the country. The UN estimates 80 a year, but many more deaths go unregistered, with the bodies buried in the rubble of collapsed tunnels. Others survive but with chronic diseases which destroy their young lives. Girls as young as ten in the mines are subjected to sexual attacks and many become pregnant. When Sky News investigated the Katanga mines it found Dorsen, working near a little girl called Monica, who was four, on a day of relentless rainfall.

Dorsen was hauling heavy sacks of rocks from the mine surface to a growing stack 60ft away. A full sack was lifted on to Dorsen’s head and he staggered across to the stack. A brutish overseer stood over him, shouting and raising his hand to threaten a beating if he spilt any.

With his mother dead, Dorsen lives with his father in the bush and the two have to work daily in the cobalt mine to earn money for food.

Dorsen’s friend Richard, 11, said that at the end of a working day ‘everything hurts’.

The daughter of murdered Lord Mountbatten used the teachings of Gandhi to forgive her father’s IRA killers.

Lady Pamela Hicks, 88, met Gandhi when her father was serving as India’s last viceroy.

Lord Mountbatten was killed while on a wooden fishing boat in 1979 along with young boys and the dowager Lady Brabourne.

Irish republican Thomas McMahon was convicted for the killings after he slipped onto the unguarded boat at night to attach a 23kg bomb.

Asked if she had forgiven the IRA, Lady Pamela said ‘yes, that is essential’.

She told the BBC: ‘I mean, we loved the Irish. We’d lived there for so much of our lives. You absolutely have to go forward. Lady Pamela was a lady in waiting for the Queen as well as a bridesmaid at her wedding to Prince Philip.

Recalling identifying her father’s body when he died aged 79, she said: ‘I honestly thought “I am not going to be able to do this”, which is ridiculous because in fact every next of kin has to identify a murdered family member.

‘But I found that a horrible idea. Luckily James (Duke of) Abercorn arrived at that moment and I said “James, I can’t do this. Will you identify him?” I felt slightly wimpish doing it.’

The bomb killed Lord Mountbatten, his grandson Nicholas Knatchbull, 14, a young crew member Paul Maxwell, 15, and the dowager Lady Brabourne, 83.

Also on board was his eldest daughter Patricia, her husband John and their other son Timothy Knatchbull.

The IRA claimed responsibility for the killings. 

A 34-year-old man was killed in a drive-by shooting last night 'by a person known to him' police have said as they launched a murder probe. 

John Pordage, an electrician and bodybuilder with a 'heart of gold' died after a driver in a blue Ford Fiesta pulled into a BP garage in Chelmsford, Essex and fired a single shot at 2.10am this morning.

Mr Pordage, who was standing with his friend, was struck in the chest and was rushed to hospital where he died. Close friend Reece Haines, 33, said: 'John and I went to school with one another and have been the best of friends since.

'John was a joker, a real character, someone that would do anything for his friends and family, he had a heart of gold, he couldn't do enough for you, he was not only a gentleman but a loyal friend and family man.

'He was a hard worker and an extremely strong bodybuilder he had a passion for fitness and also loved to draw. 'He will be sadly missed but never ever forgotten, anyone that met John would know what a positive impact he'd have on your life, and it's hard to believe that my best friend is gone.

'It will be a massive funeral, he was extremely well liked and no one can understand why this has happened.'

He added in a direct message to John: 'Rest in peace my brother and I know you'll have everyone up there in hysterics just like you did down here.

'Make sure you have a JD and coke waiting for me mate, can't wait to see you again, all my love Reece x' The senior investigating officer, Detective Chief Inspector Stephen Jennings, of the Kent and Essex serious crime directorate, said: 'Several members of the public went to the aid of the victim and his friend, and I want to thank them for their assistance in what clearly would have been harrowing circumstances.

'We have spoken to a number of witnesses but I am keen to speak to anyone who saw what happened and has yet to come forward. Any information you have, however small you think it may be, could be vital in assisting our investigation.

'I also want to speak to anyone who saw a car matching the description of the suspect vehicle in the area before and after the incident and anyone who took mobile phone or dash cam footage of the incident.'

District commander Chief Inspector Ronnie Egan said: 'Incidents such as this are extremely rare and we believe this involved people known to each other.

'Although we believe there is no wider risk to the community, I know residents will be very concerned.'

Patrols in the area had been increased, he said.  

Two teenage boys are being hunted by police after a woman was left with head and hand injuries in an attack in Legoland, Windsor. 

Police said that the two boys, both aged about 14 years, were believed to have been involved in the attack which left the woman with head and hand injuries on Friday afternoon. 

She was taken to hospital for treatment. Detectives said that the incident happened on Friday afternoon while the woman, aged in her late 50s, was in the Heartlake Shopping Mall at the Legoland Resort in Windsor, Berks.

A spokesman for Thames Valley Police said that officers were seeking help from the public who may have been at Legoland yesterday and may have seen something suspicious.

'Thames Valley Police is appealing for witnesses following an assault of a woman at Legoland Windsor,' said the spokesman.

'At around 4.30pm on Friday a woman in her late 50s was at the Heartlake Mall at Legoland when she was assaulted, leaving with her injuries to her head and hands.

'She was taken to hospital for treatment and has since been discharged. We are appealing for any witnesses who may have seen the attack and in particular information about two teenage boys who were involved. 'The boys are described as white and around 14 years old. We are following a number of lines of inquiry and would ask anyone who might have witnessed this assault to please contact us at Thames Valley Police.'

The Heartlake Shopping Mall stocks Lego materials and also caters for what its website describes as 'all the essentials you need for your day such as ponchos, umbrellas, sun cream and batteries.