Bella May Culley's dad says he'll stay in Georgia 'as long as it takes'
The father of suspected teenage British drug mule Bella May Culley has spoken out about his daughter's ordeal after her arrest and shock pregnancy announcement last week.
The 18-year-old was arrested in Tbilisi, Georgia, charged with illegally buying, possessing and importing a large quantity of drugs.
Police say they found sealed packages of hash and cannabis in her suitcase after she flew from Thailand to the former Soviet country.
Her father, Niel Culley, 49, has now said he's been unable to visit his child nearly a week after he flew to the country to be by her side.
Niel told the Mail: 'I can't say anything but I will be here for as long as it takes. I obviously have no experience in dealing with situations like this, and it's very difficult.'
Niel, who lives in Vietnam and works in oil, is with his sister Kerrie Culley in the Georgian capital in support of Bella.
Bella's lawyer said police are seeking to establish where the haul of drugs had come from and whether she was planning to hand them on to someone.
But the British teen faces a hellish prison sentence in one of the country's most notorious prisons if found guilty.
Bella had been travelling through Asia, stopping in the Philippines and Thailand – all while showing off her travels online.
Photos posted to her social media showed her enjoying typical tourist activities, including snorkelling and kayaking.
But others suggested the trip might have been turning dark.
In one photo, Bella held wads of cash tied up with a silk hairband, captioned: 'But nothing hurts when I'm with youuuuu'
Another showed Bella in a bikini, with a caption alluding to a Bonnie and Clyde-like scenario.
'Blonde or brunette? Erm, how about we get up to criminal activities side by side like Bonnie n' Clyde, making heavy figures and f***ing on balconies all over the world?
'I don't care if we on the run baby, long as I'm next to you,' she said. More Trending
After going off the radar for a bit, Bella resurfaced 4,000 miles away at Georgia's Tbilisi International Airport, where she was being held following the discovery of 30 lbs of cannabis.
If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment – 20 years in Georgia.
Bella would serve any sentence in the country's only women's jail, the notorious Prison No. 5.
The prison has been subject to controversy, with human rights groups criticising the treatment of prisoners housed there.
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Spectator
an hour ago
- Spectator
Has deporting illegals become illegal?
The circus around Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia – whose full name the New York Times likes to trot out as if citing an old-school English aristocrat – speaks volumes about the immigration battle roiling the US. Our friend Kilmar is what we fuddy-duddies insist on calling an illegal immigrant. The Salvadoran crossed clandestinely into the US in 2012. As for what he's done since, that depends on whom you ask. According to his GoFundMe page, Kilmar is a 'husband, union worker and father of a disabled five-year-old'. Left-wing media portray 'the Maryland man' – a tag akin to Axel Rudakubana's 'a Welshman' – as an industrious metalworker devoted to his family. His wife has rowed back on the temporary protective order she once requested, claiming she'd been over-cautious. Yet according to the Trump administration, Kilmar is a member of the notoriously violent street gang MS-13 who's derived his primary source of income from smuggling hundreds of illegals over the southern border for several years. Choose A or B. In 2019, Kilmar was arrested for loitering along with three other men, one a suspected MS-13 member. He was carrying marijuana, for which (of course) he wasn't charged. From his clothing, tattoos and, more persuasively, a 'past proven and reliable' confidential source who verified he was an active gang member using the moniker 'Chele', police adjudged that Kilmar was a gangbanger, for which (of course) he wasn't charged. He was turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement – whose acronym, ICE, reinforces its rep as cold-hearted – which moved to deport him. Kilmar (of course) contested his removal. The immigration judge hearing Kilmar's case concurred that the defendant was indeed a gang member and deportable; the Salvadoran (of course) appealed the decision, which nevertheless was upheld. Kilmar (of course) then filed for asylum, as well as for a 'withholding of removal'. A subsequent immigration judge stayed his deportation to his home country, where his wellbeing might be endangered by local gangs. Now, you might suppose that putting yourself in the way of other famously rivalrous gangs would come with the territory when you join one yourself. Like, inter-gang violence seems a natural hazard of this line of work. But it's not only British immigration judges who are soft touches. Only mass round-ups and swift group trials could effectively address the millions of gate-crashers Kilmar (of course) remained in the US. In 2022, he was pulled over for speeding while driving eight other Hispanic men of uncertain immigration status in an SUV altered to add a third row of seats for extra passengers. The officers suspected human-trafficking; Kilmar's driving licence had expired; a run of his number plate through the database turned up a federal note on likely membership of MS-13. Yet when the patrolmen contacted the feds, ICE (of course) declined to pick him up. So Kilmar was (of course) released without charge. Even so, his claim that he was merely transporting construction workers between jobs did not, under investigation, hold up. Fast-forward to 2025 and why this otherwise obscure Salvadoran who is or is not a thug merits such a detailed lowdown. Meaning (of course) that this case has to do with Donald Trump – whose evil minions in March flew more than 230 purported criminals to a Salvadoran prison, including none other than Kilmar, whom ICE did finally pick up (no 'of course' there). The flights' timing was judicially dodgy. The planes did or didn't take off after a federal judge ruled that the flights could not proceed until the deportees were given the opportunity to challenge their removal. The administration appealed to the Supreme Court, which directed Trump to 'facilitate' Kilmar's return to the US. Because, remember, there was only one country to which he could not be deported because of that credulous 2019 decision: his own. Hence the Justice Department's acceptance that Kilmar's deportation was an 'administrative error'. During this proxy war with Trump, Democrats have pretended to hair-tear over poor Kilmar, mouldering away in a nasty foreign prison and deprived of due process. But the story I just laid out has due process, not to mention leniency or even dereliction on the part of the authorities, up the wazoo. 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Spectator
an hour ago
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My plan for Prevent
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North Wales Chronicle
5 hours ago
- North Wales Chronicle
Mike Lynch's sunken superyacht to be lifted in late June as debris is found
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