Bella May Culley, 18, is accused of trying to smuggle up to 14kg cannabis into Georgia and could face decades in prison – her grandad says he’s terrified she will get a long sentence
The grandad of a British teenager accused of smuggling drugs abroad is pleading for answers. Bella May Culley, 18, could face up to 20 years or life imprisonment after allegedly taking up to 14kg of cannabis into Georgia, authorities in the country said.
William Culley, 80, feared he may not see his ‘intelligent’ granddaughter again, as family members today raced to Tbilisi to see the stricken teenager. He said distraught family members remained in limbo not knowing how the youngster came to be in Georgia saddled with drugs but suggested she had “obviously” been taken advantage of.
Speaking at his home in Billingham, Co Durham, Mr Culley said: “I’m terrified that she’s in for a long sentence. I might never see her again – I’m 80 years old. She’s got sucked into something, somehow. She’s not an international drug trafficker.
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“Can she even tell them who’s given her the drugs to take over? I bet she doesn’t. These people keep out of the way. It’s all just very strange and at the moment we just don’t have any answers. We don’t know what to think.”
Mr Culley told how his son, Niel, had flown from his home in Vietnam to Georgia to meet daughter Bella in prison. Neil’s sister Kerrie was due to fly to Thailand to help search for her – but discovered while at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport that her niece had been detained 3,000 miles away in Georgia.
He said his granddaughter was “intelligent” and “not daft” and would not knowingly have involved herself with drugs. Mr Culley said: “She was just going on holiday and then we never heard from her. We feared the worst because nobody knew where she was.
“Kerrie called me last night and said she had been found. I said, ‘how can you have found her? You’re in Schiphol’. And she said ‘we found her, she’s in jail’.
“I said, ‘in jail? what’s she doing in jail? And then she said, ‘drugs’. I couldn’t believe it. Who the hell has she been with?
“She was on holiday with some friends, doing what 18-year-olds do – drinking and dancing. They must have met somebody who’s taken advantage of her.”
Mr Culley described his granddaughter as a ‘normal’ 18 year old who lived with her brother and mother in social housing in Billingham. She had recently completed a college course in Middlesbrough and was making plans to enter the nursing profession.
Mr Culley said: “She’s not daft, she’s an intelligent girl. Why has she done it? Has someone dangled money in front of her? We just don’t know what has gone on until we get out there and talk to her.
“We are just hoping that somebody can do something. She must be terrified.”
Broadcasters in Georgia shared footage appearing to show the handcuffed 18-year-old being walked into the Central Criminal Police Department in Tbilisi while in handcuffs, and she now faces up to 20 years in an infamous prison.
Georgia’s Interior Ministry said in a statement this week that it “envisions up to 20 years – or life imprisonment” for Ms Culley’s alleged crime. She has been remanded to jail as she awaits trial, with local media claiming she poses a flight risk after her bid for bail was rejected by a judge.
