Why are so many people on social media desperate to not believe the story of glamour model Chloe Ayling, who international police say was the victim of a human trafficking gang? Search Chloe Ayling on Twitter and you’ll find a succession of tweets from people suggesting her story is bullshit. Yes, social media is often an inferno of meanness, but there’s something particularly strange about this fierce wave of collective consciousness calling out her ‘fake story’.

An international police investigation, one arrest and a medical report showing that Ayling was drugged is seemingly not enough proof for Twitter that the 20-year-old British model was kidnapped in Italy last month.

Appearing on daytime chat show This Morning on Monday August 14, Ayling was questioned by presenters Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford about the authenticity of her story. “You know Chloe,” Holmes said. “You speak very well, you’re very well composed, a lot of people don’t understand why you’re not constantly on show as a nervous wreck?”

“Chloe Ayling story doesn’t add up – if she is that traumatized by her so called kidnapping ordeal why is she on national TV?” said one Twitter user.

Ayling says she was abducted on July 11 in Milan at a fake modelling shoot, which her agent had arranged believing it was legitimate. As soon as she entered the studio, she was grabbed by two masked attackers. One covered her mouth and nose, the other injected her wrist with ketamine. A police report confirmed the puncture wound and drug in her system, which is commonly used as a horse tranquilizer.

Ayling says she was bound by her wrists and ankles and transported in the boot of a car to a remote village outside of Turin, 87 miles away from Milan. Her abductors then proceeded to discuss selling her as a sex slave to buyers in the Middle East.

Recounting her kidnapper’s words Ayling said: “The men would use the girls for about three months, pass them around all the relatives and friends and when they’re eventually bored of the girls, they just feed them to the tigers.”

 “The men would use the girls for about three months, pass them around all the relatives and friends and when they’re eventually bored of the girls, they just feed them to the tigers” – Chloe Ayling

Modern day slavery is a hidden epidemic taking place in the UK and across the globe, with the International Labour Organisation estimating that there are currently 21 million victims of human trafficking, 4.5 million of which are victims of forced sexual exploitation.

Tamara Bennett from the Human Trafficking Foundation told Dazed: “A huge challenge in this sector has always been a culture of disbelief towards victims of modern slavery, even when they have the courage to come forward. Survivors may also struggle with PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), and/or have been drugged, or may be fearful to tell the full story and therefore these gaps or inaccuracies in their evidence can be used against them

But Ayling’s account has been backed by the Italian authorities, who arrested Lukasz Pawel Herba, a 30-year-old Polish man living in Britain, on July 18 and charged him with kidnap and extortion. Herba told Ayling she would be sold through the dark web and he was working for a criminal gang called the Black Death Group.

The Black Death Group, according to a 2015 Interpol investigation, runs an illegal marketplace-style website selling items such as guns, drugs and people. It was here that Herba said Ayling was to be auctioned for £270,000.

Dazed also contacted the UK Foreign Office to ask them to corroborate Ayling’s case. A spokesperson said: “Staff from our consulate provided support to a British woman following an incident in Milan. We remain in contact with the Italian authorities.”

Ayling’s composure in the face of her traumatic ordeal has been met with doubt, despite the confirmation of her story by authorities in the form of police reports, court documents and medical examinations.

“I don’t believe a word Chloe Ayling has said. If you’re so traumatised why are you trying to glamourise it all?” another Tweet said. Even national newspapers cast doubt on the story in their headlines, irrespective of the fact that in the same story they referenced Italian police saying they saw not reason not to believe her.

Trauma expert, Dr Michael Duffy, from Queens University Belfast told Dazed: “Whilst I cannot comment on this specific case … I would say that we as a society, and the media in particular, need to be careful about how we respond to such reports of traumatic events. People can respond to media interviews in many different ways. Some victims develop delayed onset PTSD many months, even years after a traumatic event.

“I have seen deeply traumatized individuals ‘perform with a stiff upper lip’ for the camera, but they were really in a traumatic state of dissociation,” Duffy said.

Ayling told This Morning that in the aftermath of her release she spent three weeks in a hotel room in Italy, unable to leave through fear. “What people here didn’t witness was me crying almost every day, me being too paranoid to leave my room,” she said.

When she returned to the UK the Italian authorities reassured her that she had nothing to fear and they believed her account. The media gathered outside her family home in Surrey and photographed her smiling and hugging her dog.

After struggling to process the incident while still in Italy, Ayling’s behaviour back in the UK is clearly a reflection of someone who is relieved to be home and safe. Chloe Ayling has acted resolutely despite her horrific ordeal and by publicising her story she is raising awareness of an issue which is rarely discussed in the mainstream. Surely she should be praised for her bravery, not questioned for her legitimacy?