Six horrors faced by Brit women locked up abroad accused of being 'drug mules'
Three young British women are currently banged up abroad after being accused of drug offences - and all of them face horrific conditions while behind bars.
Bella May Culley, 18, Charlotte May Lee, 21, and Isabella Daggett, 21, are all looking at lengthy sentences in 'rotting' foreign prisons if convicted. With all the women yet to learn their fate, they are currently being held in detention facilities where living conditions are far worse than what they would expect back in the UK - and face unique challenges while their loved ones worry for them at home. All three women deny the allegation.
Freezing, overcrowded cells with no tampons
Bella May Culley, from Billingham, County Durham, is accused of carrying about 14kg of cannabis and around 2kg of hashish into Georgia. She was caught at Tbilisi Airport days after her family reported her missing in Thailand. The 18-year-old, who has appeared in court for initial hearings, could be given life in prison if found guilty.
Currently, the pregnant teenager shares a cell with two other detainees in the Women's Penitentiary Number Five in Georgia, close to the Russian border. Inspections have repeatedly uncovered serious problems with conditions inside the prison, including freezing cold cells with no access to drinking water or sanitary products
In 2015 and again in 2023 reports found prisoners were not given tampons or sanitary towels, forcing those unable to buy them to resort to unhygienic alternatives. It stressed the need for "special attention" to ensure foreign detainees received hygiene products, as they had less family contact and fewer parcel deliveries than local inmates.
'Degrading' inspections
There have also been concerns raised about 'degrading' treatment of inmates at the prison where Bella is being held. One report told how new inmates are "inspected naked and are requested to squat", a procedure described as "especially humiliating and intensive during an inmate's menstrual cycle."
'Hasn't had a shower for a month'
Isabella Daggett, from Leeds, was arrested just five weeks after moving to start a new job in the United Arab Emirates. The 21-year-old's family insist she was taken by police simply for being "in the wrong place at the wrong time" and has never used drugs.
The family also claim she has not been allowed to have a shower or even change her clothes in months after being banged up in a prison in March. They said: "She has had nothing. Women get treated far worse than male prisoners, who get to go outside, they get sports, a PlayStation and a television - Bella has nothing."
'No medical treatment' despite pregnancy
Bellay May Culley's lawyers claim that she is pregnant - and say that she has not been given the medical attention she needs while in detention.
Her solicitor Mariam Kublashvili said: "She is pregnant and needs medical care which she complained she wasn't getting – there were no tests or checks or medical examinations done, she told me. She said she asked for a doctor, but the doctor wasn't speaking English and they couldn't understand each other."
Maggots found in food
Charlotte May Lee was arrested for allegedly attempting to take £1.2m worth of the synthetic drug Kush into Sri Lanka on May 12.
She is being held at Negombo Prison, located just north of the capital of Colombo, which has as a described as a "hell" for female inmates in particular. Maggots have reportedly been found in food, and rats have been scuttling around extremely overcrowded cells.
Rabies-infected rats
In one frightening account of the conditions Charlotte faces in the facility, a female prisoner previously said: "We are treated as far less than human. About 150 of us sleep in a cell designed for 75 people.
"An open drain infested with rats runs the perimeter of the room. Recently, one of the inmates was bitten and had to be rushed to the hospital for an anti-rabies shot."
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