There has been a major update in the case of the British teen who went missing in Thailand before being arrested almost 4,000 miles away.
After Bella May Culley’s family spoke in the media on Tuesday morning (13 May), it later came to light that she had been detained in Eastern Europe.
The 18-year-old’s mum had become concerned after not hearing from her for a number of days and believed her phone had been switched off while travelling in Southeast Asia.
While her dad and aunt flew out to Bangkok for answers, the teen from Billingham, County Durham, had been arrested all the way over in Georgia on suspicion of drug offences.
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Culley then appeared in a Tbilisi court for a pre-trial hearing where she said she is pregnant. And her lawyer has now explained more about her case.
It was confirmed by police that officers had seized marijuana and hashish as they said the Brit was ‘charged with illegally purchasing and storing a particularly large amount of narcotics, illegally purchasing and storing the narcotic drug marijuana, and illegally importing it’ into Georgia.
The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs made it clear that this carried up to 20 years in jail, or life imprisonment.
But while she is investigated, before the case is brought to trial, Culley faces months in a Georgian prison.
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The prosecutor requested 55 days to find evidence, and it is understood that this could be extended by a further seven months.
The teen’s lawyer, Ia Touda, explained police want to establish where the ‘up to 12kg’ of marijuana and ‘2kg’ of hashish had come from and whether Culley was ‘planning to hand it over to someone’.
"They said that they had to conduct a lot of investigative activities, so that they can collect evidence, establish where it was from [the narcotics] and was she planning to hand it over to someone," the lawyer said.
"That's what they said they want to establish, and they also confiscated her phone."
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Touda also confirmed that at the end of her hearing, Culley ‘told the court that she was pregnant’.
Her mum previously revealed the last message she had received from the teen who had been ‘posting loads of pictures of her travels’.
"The last message she sent was to me and that was on Saturday at 5.30pm saying she was going to Facetime me later," Lyanne Kennedy told Teeside Live (before the arrest came to light). "That was the last message anyone has received from what we can figure out up to now."
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) told the LADbible Group: "We are supporting the family of a British woman who is detained in Georgia and are in contact with the local authorities."
Jess Battison