At a glance
- Bella May Culley, a 19-year-old pregnant Briton, has returned to the UK after spending five months in a Georgian prison for attempting to smuggle 12kg of marijuana and 2kg of hashish into the country.
- She was found guilty but freed after being sentenced to time served, with prosecutors citing her age, pregnancy, and confession; her family reportedly paid £137,000 as part of a plea deal.
- Culley claimed she had been tortured by gangsters in Thailand and forced to carry the drugs, with her lawyer saying she showed visible signs of abuse when detained.
A pregnant British teenager who was held over drug smuggling offences in Georgia has arrived back in the UK after her five month prison ordeal.
Bella May Culley, 19, who is eight months pregnant, was arrested at Tbilisi Airport in May for trying to smuggle 12 kilograms of marijuana and two kilograms of hashish into the country.
Miss Culley had pleaded guilty to drug trafficking offences, but said she was forced to carry the drugs by gangsters who tortured her with a hot iron.
She was freed on Monday after a plea deal was agreed.
The teenager was snapped checking into an easyJet flight from the same airport on Tuesday where she was caught with the drugs in her suitcase.
She was wheeling a cream suitcase believed to be the same one that Georgian officers had found filled with cannabis, the Sun reported.
She was picured arriving back in the UK at London Luton airport on Tuesday evening.
The 19-year-old had told reporters she did not expect to be freed after walking free on Monday.
Culley was spotted wearing a cream blazer and her baby bump was clearly visible as she stepped out holding hands with her mother Lyanne Kennedy.
When she was approached by a reporter from The Sun at Tbillsi Airport, Ms Kennedy explained: “Bella is still very overwhelmed. She hasn’t slept and getting home to her brother, my son, is our priority today.”
Georgian prosecutors were considering a two-year sentence, but “decided to consider the time she has already served”, Prosecutor Vakhtang Tsalughelashvili told The Associated Press.
The teenager had been found guilty by a Georgian court on Monday and sentenced to five months and 25 days in prison, the total time she had already spent in custody.
“We reviewed the case, taking into account the confession of the accused, her age and condition, and ultimately, the parties reached an agreement,” Tsalughelashvili added.
Culley’s family has paid more than £137,000 as part of a plea deal aimed at reducing her sentence.
She could have faced a penalty of up to 15 years, or life imprisonment.
Culley and her mother both cried as the verdict was read out and embraced when the hearing finished.
Ms Kennedy told the AP she thought she would only see her daughter after the birth of her grandson.
“It was totally unexpected,” she said.
Ms Kennedy suggested that her grandson should be named after the lawyer Malkhaz Salakhaia who wored to free her daughter.
The teenager has previously described being tortured by gangsters in Thailand and forced to bring the drugs into the country.
Mr Salakhaia has told reporters that Culley showed visible physical signs of torture upon her arrival in Georgia.
