An 18-year old British nursing student has been arrested in Georgia after she went missing in Thailand. Bella May Culley has been arrested for allegedly smuggling 14kg of cannabis into the country and has now told the court she is pregnant. Miss Culley is in police custody in the former Soviet republic, accused of illegally buying, possessing and importing large quantities of narcotics, including marijuana.
She had been travelling Asia for the past month and now, if she is found guilty, she faces life imprisonment, reports The Times. Miss Culley, from Stockton-on-Tees, Teesside, had been reported missing to local police as her family had not heard from her since Saturday.
The Foreign Office in London were alerted and her father and aunt flew to Thailand to help in the search.
She was arrested on the same day in Tbilisi airport, where authorities seized up to 12kg of marijuana and just over 2kg of hashish after a scanner showed a suspicious substance in a bag.
Her grandfather has spoken of his disbelief and has speculated that someone may have offered her money to transport the drugs.
In a hearing on Tuesday in Tbilisi, Miss Culley told the court that she was pregnant – her lawyer has said there will be a medical examination to check her condition.
Miss Culley remained silent about the charges brought against her and was remanded in custody before a pre-trial hearing on July 1.
The nursing student had recently finished a course at Middlesbrough College, and had travelled to southeast Asia twice since the start of the year.
In recent social media posts, she shared a video of her smoking a rolled cigarette and flaunting wads of cash held together by a hairband.
In one of her TikTok videos she referred to the 1930s American outlaw couple, Bonnie and Clyde.
“Blonde or brunette? Erm how about we get up to criminal activities side by side like Bonnie n Clyde making heavy figures and f****** on balconies over the world,” she said in one video posted on April 1.
In a caption, she added: “I don’t care if we on the runnnnn baby long as i’m next to uuu.”
Her immediate family have flown to Georgia to see Miss Culley, who will is likely to be held at Tbilisi Prison No 5, the only women’s jail in the country.
Posting on TikTok Ms Culley said she “will literally be up for anything” but drew a hard limit at smoking or doing drugs.
She wrote: “I will literally be up for anything. But if you ask me to smoke a fag or a vape or do any drug I will look at you like you are s*** on my shoe.”
Speaking before her arrest, Lyanne Kennedy, Miss Culley’s mother, told Teesside Live: “She flew out to the Philippines after Easter with a friend and she was there for three weeks.
“She was posting loads of pictures and then she went to Thailand on about May 3.
“The last message she sent was to me and that was at 5.30 saying she was going to Facetime me later. That was the last message anyone has received from what we can figure out up to now…I just want her home and safe or to hear her gorgeous little voice.”
On Wednesday, a Pattaya police spokesman speculated that the teenager may have been “lured by criminals” to act as a drug mule, possibly in exchange for the promise of a “holiday of a lifetime”.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who is detained in Georgia and are in contact with the local authorities.”