The family of a pregnant British teenager held on drug smuggling charges in Georgia have paid £138,000 in a plea bargain that may see her give birth in prison. Bella Culley, 19, a student nurse from Billingham, Teesside, was arrested at Tbilisi airport in May after allegedly being found with 14kg of cannabis worth £200,000 in a travel bag.
At a court hearing in Tbilisi on Tuesday, her mother Lyanne Kennedy said the family had raised 500,000 lari (£137,870) and were waiting for the funds to be credited to the government account. The family had initially tried to raise £225,000 (800,000 lari) in the hope of securing her immediate release.
Prosecution and defence lawyers agreed that the lesser amount would be paid in exchange for a two-year sentence. Culley had previously been warned she could face up to 20 years or life in prison if convicted. The sentence is due to be handed down on Monday, with the possibility she could serve it under house arrest to allow her to have her baby.
Culley, who was reported missing in Pattaya, Thailand, before her arrest, had previously pleaded not guilty, claiming she was tortured into taking the drugs to a country she had never heard of. On Tuesday she changed her plea to guilty and asked the judge: "Will I be able to take the baby with me if I go back to jail?" The judge replied that nobody would take the baby away from her.
Prosecutor Vakhtang Tsalugelashvili confirmed the plea bargain had been reached, with conditions of two years' imprisonment and a fine of 500,000 Georgian lari. Culley's lawyer, Malkhaz Salakaia, said all parties had been informed and asked for a final hearing for the verdict. Bail was refused on medical grounds, with a doctor saying her conditions were satisfactory.
Kennedy said the court had demanded a higher sum than the family could raise. "They did budge but we still couldn't raise that amount," she told reporters, adding that her daughter looked "big, pregnant, but strong" during the hearing.
