Bella May Culley, from Billingham, County Durham, was reported missing in Thailand but it has now emerged she has been detained more than 4,000 miles away in Georgia
A British teenager faces life behind bars in a “decaying and overcrowded” prison following her arrest on suspicion of smuggling 30 pounds cannabis through an ex-Soviet nation airport.
Bella May Culley, 18, allegedly carried the drug into Georgia, where she was detained at Tbilisi International Airport. However, she had been the subject of a massive international search operation in recent days after she was reported missing while she was believed to be holidaying in Thailand.
But last night, in a shock update, details of the young woman’s arrest emerged. It means Culley could now face two decades or more behind bars in the country’s only female prison, Tbilisi Prison No.5, located 45 minutes away from the ex-Soviet capital.
Photographs show the sterile interior of the facility, said in local reports to be decaying. Media has also reported on the how cramped and unsanitary conditions are in Tbilisi Prison No.5.
Last night, Cleveland Police, which had been assisting with the family’s missing person’s enquiry, said: “Update on Billingham woman who was reported missing overseas. We have this afternoon had confirmation from the authorities in Georgia that an 18-year-old woman from Billingham has been arrested there on suspicion of drugs offences and that she remains in their custody.”
And footage has now emerged of Culley in handcuffs as she is being led into a police station in Tbilisi. Local media in the country reported Culley, from Billingham, County Durham, was found to have “34 hermetically sealed packages containing marijuana… as well as 20 packages of hashish” in her possession at the airport.
It is believed Culley’s family had lost contact with the woman during her trip to Thailand, which began around May 3. Her backpacking journey started in the Philippines just after Easter, it is understood.
But now the arrest in Georgia puts into jeopardy the woman’s reported aspirations to become a nurse. The teenager has recently finished a course at college with the aim of going into the profession, it is believed.
On its website, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) states it cannot get Brits out of jail in Georgia or help anyone get special treatment because they are British. Its website has a page specifically about arrests in the nation, in which it states “prison conditions vary”.
It adds: “It is usual in Georgia for cells/dormitories to be shared. There is no set maximum number of occupants, rather it depends on the type of facility, size of the room, etc.”
And a damning Human Rights Watch (HRW) report into the lock up previously criticised the “severely overcrowded” facility after they alongside Amnesty International and Penal Reform International urged the Georgian government to end ill-treatment in their prisons in 2006.
The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment (CPT) described the conditions at No 5 as “degrading,” “inhuman” and as such “an affront to a civilised society” that same year.
Culley’s dad Neil, also from Billingham, had flown to Bangkok in the huge search for the teenager when she vanished, it is understood. The Mirror has contacted the FCDO for comment.