As pregnant ‘drug mule’ Bella May Culley pleads with the judge as she awaits her fate in Georgia, one woman recalls the harrowing reality of raising your child in prison
Pregnant British teen Bella May Culley is facing life behind bars in Georgia after allegedly smuggling drugs into the country. And now questions are being raised about what life may look like for her and her baby if she is convicted.
The 18-year-old today has issued a plea in court to see her story “through my eyes” – as it emerged she is due to have a baby boy.
Bella – who previously claimed to have been tortured – told the judge: “I hope you understand my story through my eyes. I never thought something like this would happen to me.”
While her case unfolds in a foreign justice system thousands of miles from home, back in the UK, one woman knows all too well what it means to become a mother behind bars. Molly Ellis, now 32, was 26 years old and pregnant with her second child when she was convicted of conspiracy to defraud with a custodial sentence to serve seven years behind bars.
Just 12 weeks after giving birth to Isla in December 2016, Molly walked through the gates of HMP Bronzefield to begin her sentence. “It was one of the hardest decisions of my life choosing to bring Isla into prison with me,” she tells The Mirror. “But I couldn’t face being apart from her.”
Molly’s journey into the criminal justice system was one full of trauma, desperation and, as she describes it, a “lack of support” at every turn.
At just 16, she fell pregnant with her partner Michael Ogbuehi. But just weeks before she was due to give birth, the couple were involved in a horrific assault on a train from Southend. “He was left brain damaged,” she says. “He couldn’t walk or talk. I was his next of kin. He had no family – he came from the care system – and I had to care for him at the same time I was raising our newborn.
“I completely spiralled. I couldn’t work, I couldn’t cope financially or emotionally. I was supporting him in hospital while raising a baby. I was very vulnerable. I was desperate. I wanted to be a good mum, but I had no way out.”
Molly found herself plummeting into a downward spiral following the attack that left her raising her daughter alone. “I got involved with a bad crowd,” she explains.
At 21-years-old, she found herself embroiled in a fraud case with a VIP car company after trying to put through a fake transaction, with Snaresbrook Crown Court sentencing her to a seven year custodial sentence five years after her initial crime took place.
“When I finally got sentenced, I was two months post-partum,” she explains. “Then I found out I could bring Isla into prison with me. Because of my first experience – having to parent while dealing with trauma – I didn’t want to lose that bond.”
But from day one, it was clear that parenting in prison was a vastly different experience from the outside world. “There are only a handful of prisons in the UK that allow you to have your child with you – Bronzefield being one of them. You’re completely separate from the main prison wings, but it’s still a prison. You’re locked behind doors. There are bars on the windows. You can’t take your child outdoors unless it’s part of an organised activity. Everything is controlled by the prison regime.”
Molly describes how emotionally harrowing the experience became. “It was mentally destroying. I was bonding with my daughter everyday, knowing she was going to be taken from me at some point. You get close to your baby, you hold them daily, and then you’re reminded that this is temporary.”
At nine months, Molly made the heart-wrenching decision to send Isla to live with her parents. “She started becoming aware of the environment. She could see uniforms. I thought the kindest thing I could do was let her go.”
That handover remains one of her darkest memories. “They bring your family into the visit hall. You pass your baby across, and they walk away. You don’t know when you’ll see them again.”
As Bella May Culley awaits trial in Georgia, the possibility of her serving time while pregnant – or with a newborn – is becoming increasingly real.
Bella is alleged to have smuggled dozens of bags of cannabis and hashish into the former Soviet Union country of Georgia and is currently being held in prison. For Molly, the thought of a teenage mother giving birth abroad, alone, is “terrifying.”
“She’s a UK citizen with a UK child in her stomach. Why is no one stepping in? Will she get nappies? Maternity support? Will her family be able to visit? Will she even be allowed to keep the baby with her? These are the things nobody is asking.”
She adds: “I saw women give birth in prison cells because they weren’t taken seriously. Officers ignored calls for help. Imagine that happening to Bella in another country. It’s unthinkable.”
While Molly doesn’t excuse crime, she believes there must be a line between punishment and protection. “If Bella is guilty, yes, she needs to be held accountable. But this is a young girl, pregnant, and potentially alone in a foreign prison.”
Molly was eventually released after serving two and a half years in prison. She didn’t see her daughter again for nearly nine months after the separation. “I didn’t want her to see me in prison again. I waited until I was on temporary release. But by then, I had to rebuild everything. The bond, the trust, the relationship – it all had to start from scratch.”
Her eldest daughter, Ava, also suffered during Molly’s time in prison. “She was just about to start Year 7 when I was released. She didn’t understand why I left her. There was trauma there, deep trauma. Even now, we’re still repairing our relationship.”
What followed was years of reintegration, from learning how to parent again to rebuilding a life from the ground up. “You can’t show emotion in prison. You can’t cry or fall apart. But when you’re out, you have to become soft again – for your children. That’s the hardest part.”
Today, Molly, from Essex, runs Project Accountability, a charity that works with care leavers, victims of domestic abuse, and young people at risk of knife crime and gang involvement.
“I now go into prisons and work with people who remind me of myself. I know how they got there. We look at their trauma, their past, their triggers – and we offer them employment routes, therapy, mentorship.”
The charity is continuing to expand, with plans to gain government funding and help more children and people from underprivileged backgrounds to change their pathway and gain employment.
James Pipe, Legal Expert at Felons Assistance, warns that Bella faces one of the “most serious offences a tourist can face.” He adds: “In many countries, including Georgia, drug offences carry long custodial sentences, and prison conditions may not meet the standards we expect in the UK.”
And he thinks it might be hard for her to return to the UK. “This is not a case of the UK stepping in to ‘rescue’ someone from justice abroad, It’s about ensuring that due process is followed and her rights, particularly as a pregnant detainee, are respected.”