A British teenager who is facing life in prison in Georgia on drugs charges ended up in the country ‘without knowing what she was doing’ and was ‘visibly shaken’ when she learned her fate, her lawyer has revealed.
Bella May Culley, 18, is accused of illegally buying, possessing and importing large quantities of narcotics after she was allegedly caught smuggling 14kg of cannabis into the former Soviet state.
The youngster from Billingham, Country Durham, was believed to have gone missing in Thailand before she was detained 3,700 miles away at Tbilisi International Airport on the charges.
Her duty lawyer Ia Todua told the Mail that the teenager ‘was in an emotional state’ when she was told her rights and what she was accused of.
She said: ‘When I explained to her that what she was accused of was an especially severe crime then she was concerned and visibly shaken.’
Asked whether she thought Bella realised the full extent of her alleged actions, Ms Todua said: ‘My impression was that she ended up in Georgia without even knowing what she was doing.’
She added: ‘She looked like she didn’t expect it to have such severe consequences.’
Asked what sort of sentence she is looking at, Ms Todua confirmed that if convicted Bella faces a minimum term of 15 years but could be jailed for life.
Her family have been pushing to see the teenager since it emerged that she had been detained and hauled into a Georgian court.
Bella’s father and aunt have been spotted emerging from the public defender’s office in Georgia after they were blocked from seeing her in prison.
Father Niel Culley, 49, and auntie Kerrie Culley, 51, touched down in Tbilisi on Wednesday and appealed for a reunion with the 18-year-old.
Legal sources told the Mail the relatives tried to visit on Wednesday and again on Thursday, but were not allowed because the prison director had not signed relevant paperwork.
It is understood they are pushing to visit today, but are reliant on officials signing it off.
Meanwhile questions remain over a mysterious man Bella met in the Far East before she was allegedly travelled to the eastern European country.
She was arrested earlier this week at Tbilisi International Airport with with 12kg of cannabis and 2kg of hashish with a street value of £200,000, after telling her family she was backpacking through Thailand.
Her social media posts revealed she was living the high life in southeast Asia, riding on the back of motorcycles and lounging on sunny beaches, and in many of them she was seen in the company of a male figure who was never clearly pictured or named.
Many of her social media posts referenced the infamous American outlaws Bonnie and Clyde, with one TikTok captioned: ‘Don’t care if we on the run baby as long as I’m next to u.’
That video showed Bella relaxing, with the clip captioned: ‘Blonde or brunette? Erm, how about we get up to criminal activities side by side like Bonnie n Clyde making heavy figures and f***ing on balconies all over the world.’
Bella’s family have since revealed that she told them she was meeting a group of young men from the northwest of England in Thailand.
Her grandad William Culley, 80, revealed that though she appears to have spent most of March in Thailand, the teenager spent time in the Philippines beforehand with a man called ‘Ross or Russ’.
Mr Culley said: ‘She went to the Philippines to see somebody, a lad there, who she used to go out with a couple of years ago, who was working out there.
‘She said, “I’m going on my own, but I’m meeting Ross out there.” Or Russ, I’m not sure what his name is.
‘He was working out there for his father’s company or something – but now I wonder if what she told me was true.’
He added: ‘Last night they were told they could see her in the morning.
‘They said they’d ring me straight after they had seen her but I haven’t had a call. They must still be waiting.
‘It’s just really important that they get to see her as soon as possible. The poor bairn must be at her wits’ end. Especially if we can’t see her.
‘Everything should be done to make that happen.’
A family friend of Bella earlier told the Sun they believed the teenager had been ‘completely exploited’ after falling in with British drug dealers while backpacking.
They said: ‘I’d put money on them being drug runners. There was a lad from Darlington she was with too. He’s a drug runner – I know he is.
‘This is totally out of character for her. I know, because she’s a close friend of my daughter.
‘She’s just a normal 18-year-old. She’s not some hardened criminal.
‘To then suddenly go from the Philippines to Thailand seems strange to me. Her dad’s in bits. Her family’s in bits. She’s a victim.’
Bella claimed in court she was pregnant and her lawyer said she had been left ‘scared, confused and depressed’. Her lawyer also described how the teen broke down on being told she could face life behind bars if convicted.
She has been preliminarily detained until July 1 while investigations are ongoing.
She is languishing in notorious Women’s Colony Number 5 on the outskirts of Tbilisi, and could be facing 20 years in prison.
But while Bella is investigated on suspicion of drug offences, she could spend up to nine months in the hellhole jail.
The prosecutor asked for 55 days to find evidence before the case is brought to trial but this could be extended by a further seven months.
Amid the rising tensions, her father and auntie have been locked in talks with British Embassy officials since their arrival and are not speaking to the press.
Bella recently revealed he had been instructed by his son to market the house to raise money towards legal help for his daughter, who had recently started doing bank shifts as a nurse.
He said he was ‘surprised’ when lawyers for Bella revealed she is pregnant. ‘I only found out when my daughter told me last night.’
But she added if she co-operates this could be reduced – and the fact she is young and possibly pregnant would help in mitigation if she pleads guilty and assists in the investigation.
Asked what her requests were on their first meeting, Ms Todua said: ‘The only thing she asked was for me to contact her family.
‘She gave me their emails, but there was some mistake in how they were written down and the delivery failed.
‘We tried to send the emails, but they came back.’
Asked if Bella has yet to explain to her lawyer how she came to be in possession of 14kg of drugs, Ms Todua said: ‘No, she hasn’t.’ She confirmed her family do not know either.
The huge haul of drugs was found in her hold luggage, while her carry-on bag only had clothes in it. She was flying into the country on a plane from Sharjah in the UAE.
Zurab Tatunashvili, a senior customs officer, described the discovery of drugs in the bag of the 18-year-old girl.
He said: ‘I was inspecting luggage using an X-ray scanner.
‘One of the bags appeared suspicious based on its contents, so I marked it with a customs sticker, which indicates that it must undergo a physical inspection in the presence of the passenger in a specially designated room.’
Bella has undergone medical tests to determine if she is pregnant, but Ms Todua is not at liberty to confirm or deny if her client is pregnant.
She said: ‘The first thing they do is a medical check up, and obviously the pregnancy situation is investigated and checked, but without Bella’s explicit approval I cannot confirm nor deny anything.’
Ms Todua said she will next visit her client next week while her relatives are still anxiously waiting for a chance to see her.
‘Bella has written a letter to the authorities asking them to allow her father to visit, buy they have not yet responded,’ she said.
‘They might respond tomorrow so he can go in, but they have up to five days to respond.
‘Bella has the right to demand a short term visit from her family of up to one hour.
‘They would meet in a room, there would be no glass separating them.’
Todua told Radio Free Europe (RFE): ‘When the accusation was presented, given that it was a foreign environment for her, it was her first time communicating with law enforcement officers, we agreed on such a position that she should exercise her right to remain silent in order to develop herself.’
Law enforcement is expected to contact the suspect ‘in a few days’ in her detention jail.
‘If she wishes to cooperate with the investigation in terms of providing certain information regarding the accusation, this will be agreed upon later,’ reported RFE citing the lawyer.
It is possible that a separate legal team will be hired.
Todua confirmed earlier this week that Bella’s father Niel was headed to Tbilisi after having flown to Thailand, where she initially went missing.
The British Embassy in Tbilisi told RFE: ‘We are assisting the family of the British woman detained in Georgia and are also in contact with the local authorities.’
The report said that neither the Ministry of Internal Affairs nor the Customs Department of the Revenue Service of the Ministry of Finance in Tbilisi say which country the British woman entered Georgia from, nor whether Georgia was her final destination.
Any onward travel plans have not been disclosed.
But Todua told RFE that according to the case materials, Bella arrived in Georgia from Thailand and, according to her travel tickets, intended to stay in Georgia.