A “terrified” teenager vanished while on vacation in Thailand and has reappeared thousands of miles away, claiming to be pregnant in the former Soviet Union, where she is being held on charges of drug smuggling.
Bella May Culley, 18, a nursing student from the UK, appeared in court in Tbilisi, the capital of Georgia, a week after vanishing in South East Asia.
Culley, who previously flaunted her luxurious lifestyle on social media, was allegedly caught carrying 30 pounds of cannabis at Tbilisi International Airport, dailymail.co.uk reported.
The teen, who told the court she was pregnant in a hearing on Tuesday, is being preliminarily detained for two months while investigations continue, her lawyer said.
Her disappearance last week triggered an enormous international search operation.
Before she was found, her family had last heard from her on May 3.
“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,” her mother Lyanne Culley told Teesside Live.
“The last message she sent was to me and that was on Saturday at 5:30 p.m. 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.”
Her father and sister then flew out to Thailand to try and find her.
Bella May Culley, from County Durham, northeast England, is now being held in a hellhole ex-Soviet jail.
Tbilisi Prison No. 5, Georgia’s only female prison, was described as “severely overcrowded,” with conditions that were “degrading,” “inhuman” and “an affront to a civilized society,” by a Human Rights Watch report in 2006.
The bathrooms were described as “decaying and filthy,” while the cells smelled “strongly of human sweat, human excrement, and cigarette smoke,” the same report alleged.
She is currently “terrified and confused,” her lawyer said.
If found guilty, Culley could face 15 to 20 years in prison, legal expert Jemal Janashia told dailymail.co.uk.
“The fact that she was detained by CrimPol’s Special Tasks Department suggests this wasn’t a random search, but a planned operation. And the quantity of drugs found on her makes it hard to remain optimistic,” he said.
“It’s a grim situation — people have been sentenced to eight years or more for possessing 20 times less in the past decade,” he added. “Drug offenses are one of the key priorities for the Georgian police.”
Culley’s recent social media posts show her living a life of luxury beyond that of an average nursing student, including scuba diving and partying on tropical islands in the Philippines.
She also flaunted huge stacks of cash in videos she posted on TikTok and Instagram.
In other videos, she reportedly compared herself to historical criminal couple Bonnie and Clyde, according to reports.
Her father, Niel Culley, has traveled from the family’s home to be with his daughter, her lawyer told dailymail.co.uk.
Culley did not answer the judge’s questions regarding the allegations and has not entered a plea.
“My client is currently exercising the right to remain silent, so we will provide detailed information later, once they decide how to proceed,” her lawyer told the local press.
