Pregnant Brit ‘drug mule' Bella Culley facing 15 years in jail despite plea she was forced to smuggle £200k of cannabis
Bella, 19, was caught in the former Soviet state of Georgia in May with £200,000 worth of cannabis in her bags.
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She is seeking a plea bargain deal, claiming she was burned with a hot iron and shown a beheading video by a Thai gang, which forced her to fly to Tbilisi..
But, speaking for the first time, Georgian prosecutor Vakhtang Tsaluqelashvili revealed that he plans to contest the pregnant teenager's claims.
And he added that the state has found evidence which proves her smuggling crime was premeditated and coolly carried out.
Mr Tsaluqelashvili told The Sun: 'We have evidence confirming that the defendant acted with prior intent.
'She passed through several airports, and at no stage did she display any such, let's say, position or behaviour that would make us think this was not an intentional crime.
'Among other things, at the moment of her arrest, she did not say anything of this kind to the Georgian customs officers either.
'Given the gravity of the offence committed, the minimum expected sentence is 15 years - even taking into account the mitigating circumstances.'
Bella got pregnant after a fling with an unidentified British man on the first leg of her disastrous backpacking trip and revealed she was expecting a baby boy in court on Thursday.
The naive youngster from Billingham, Teesside, said she was forced to board a plane and never saw the baggage containing 31lbs of cannabis and hashish until she was arrested.
She also claimed she had no idea where Georgia was and tried to raise the alarm when she boarded a flight from Bangkok.
New CCTV of Brit 'mule' Bella May Culley 'smuggling £200k of cannabis' released as cops slam her claims she was coerced
But CCTV produced by Thai police does not show her attempting to alert officers at the airport.
Mr Tsaluqelashvil said a plea bargain deal between the prosecution and defence was still possible - but may still result in jail time or a suspended sentence plus a fine.
Her lawyer Malkhaz Salakaia said that a plea bargain for his client to return to Britain was "quite likely" adding the "opportunity has been mentioned several times".
Mr Salakaia told Tbilisi City Court yesterday: 'Bella has an obvious health condition - she is soon to be a mother to a baby boy and I want her to experience it while free.
'It's a pivotal moment in one's life, especially one so young. She is only 19.'
Mr Salakaia added: 'There was no malicious intent on Bella's part - she was pressured and forced and there is irrefutable evidence of that.
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"Her testimony contains even the names and last names of the individuals who forced her to transport it, she was threatened, as well as her family, including her mother who is present today.
'I want to underline that she didn't hand in the baggage - all she knows is that there is this luggage and she will be met by certain individuals once she arrives.
'The bag wasn't even locked, and it went through three countries and two continents, while Bella to this day is unaware whether Tbilisi is a country or a city.
'Bella didn't commit this crime and there is no grounds to doubt her testimony. I hope you are convinced your honor and knowing your past practice.
'I am sure she won't be found guilty."
Bella - who has been supported at hearings by her mum Lyanne Kennedy and oil rig worker dad Niel Culley - is due back in court in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on September 2.
Inside the dark world of Brit 'drug mules'
A SLEW of drug mule arrests involving Brits have emerged in the last few months.
In April and May, two Brit women were arrested abroad for alleged drug smuggling.
Bella was the first after she allegedly tried to smuggle a suitcase of weed into Georgia.
Meanwhile, former air stewardess Charlotte May Lee was also caught allegedly trying to smuggle drugs worth £1.2million into Sri Lanka.
Her two suitcases were said to have been stuffed with 46kg of a synthetic cannabis strain known as kush — which is 25 times more potent than opioid fentanyl.
If found guilty, South Londoner Charlotte could face a 25-year sentence.
As a young mum was detained in Germany for allegedly smuggling cannabis in her bags on a flight from Thailand - in yet another shocking case.
Glamorous Cameron Bradford, 21, from Knebworth, Herts, was detained at Munich Airport on April 21 as she tried to collect her luggage.
It comes as a Brit couple claiming to be tourists from Thailand have been busted with more than 33kg of cannabis in their suitcases at a Spanish airport.
The pair were picked out by suspicious cops at Valencia Airport after displaying a 'nervous and evasive attitude' and are now behind bars on drug trafficking charges.
Experts told The Sun how wannabe Brit Insta stars are being lured by cruel gangs into carting drugs across the world.
Then last month, a six-year-old British boy was arrested in Mauritius suspected of smuggling part of a £1.6million dope haul stuffed inside his wheelie case.
The lad was picked up by customs officials along with his mum and five other Brits as they arrived on the tropical island.
Authorities branded the use of a child in the audacious drug smuggling plot as 'inhumane".
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The Sun
5 hours ago
- The Sun
My kind uncle was murdered by cannabis-crazed mum… as experts warn Class B drug is fuelling wave of psychotic killers
WHEN pensioner Roger Leadbeater was brutally murdered in cold blood while out walking his dog in a Sheffield park, his distraught family were completely at a loss. "As a family, we can barely believe such a kind, gentle soul could be taken in such a way,' they said in a statement, highlighting how the 74-year-old's faithful springer spaniel refused to leave his side while he lay dying that fateful evening in August 2023. 17 17 17 It later emerged the woman charged with killing him, then 32-year-old schizophrenic Emma Borowy, was a habitual cannabis user who, when not being treated in a mental health hospital, would sacrifice feeding herself to pay for the drug. Mother-of-one Borowy, who died in a suspected suicide in prison in December 2023, had absconded from Royal Bolton Hospital eight times since she was sectioned in October 2022, and each time she escaped she would buy weed and display increasingly concerning psychotic behaviour. 'As far as I could see she was never reprimanded at all for having cannabis despite having it every time she left and even having it on hospital grounds,' Roger's grieving niece, Angela Hector, 56, told The Sun. 'I am now so scared of what cannabis can do. This has had a massive impact on us as a family. We have lost somebody really important to us.' In May this year, London Mayor Sadiq Khan backed a call for the partial decriminalisation of possession of the Class B drug in a recent report by the London Drugs Commission. It suggested doing so could free up law enforcement and court resources, as individuals caught with small amounts might face warnings, fines or community service, and eventually pave the way towards a regulated cannabis market. But the suggestion set alarm bells ringing for Roger's family - and the Police and Crime Commissioner for Dorset, David Sidwick. He wrote a letter to police minister Dame Diana Johnson which was signed by 13 other PCCs, claiming the effect of the drug in society may, in actual fact, be 'far worse' than heroin, and it should be upgraded to Class A - a belief shared by the former Home Secretary Suella Braverman. Mr Sidwick said: 'It is a chronically dangerous drug that we haven't gripped. The whole world has been subjected to a PR campaign in the other direction. 'I worked in the pharmaceutical industry for 30 years and this drug has long-term chronic side effects. 'It is associated with more birth defects than thalidomide and is linked to more than 20 cancers. Not to mention the issues with psychosis and drug driving.' Mr Sidwick's concerns are echoed by the findings of a Sun probe which reveals cannabis is behind a mental health epidemic that has seen a third of people presenting with psychosis in London developing it from heavy use of high strength weed. The THC levels - the mind-altering element in weed - nowadays is almost seven times stronger than it was 35 years ago, shooting up from three per cent to 15-20 per cent in potent modern-day cultivated cannabis. The increase has a frightening effect on the addictiveness of the substance, making users, particularly teenagers with developing brains, vulnerable to mental health issues with prolonged heavy use, which can progress to violent disorders - sometimes with deadly consequences. 'Epidemic' 17 17 Psychiatrist professor Sir Robin Murray, who specialises in psychosis at King's College, London, told The Sun: 'To the parents in their 40s and 50s who see their children smoking cannabis, they need to be aware that it is a very different substance to what it was years ago. 'The result is that it's far more addictive. We're seeing smokers having up to 20 joints a day. 'We are at the beginnings of an epidemic of cannabis-induced psychosis. 'About a third of the people in London who present with psychosis have developed it from heavy use of high potency cannabis. 'The mental health service is a right mess. One of the reasons for that is that we've got more people who are psychotic than we're expected to have. 'Half of those people with cannabis induced psychosis will develop schizophrenia in five years. 'But it is not schizophrenia that makes you violent, it's cannabis that makes you violent. 'Cannabis makes you paranoid, so if you're hearing voices from God commanding you to do something, then you're seeing violence in a bizarre and horrifying murder that is not like plotting to kill your wife in six weeks time, but a sudden psychotic episode where you kill whoever you come across.' The effects of this were seen on June 27, when Marcus Arduini-Monzo, 37, was jailed for life after he murdered 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin with a samurai sword as he walked to school in a 20-minute rampage in East London. The appalling attack was blamed on Arduini-Monzo's cannabis misuse. Links to violence 17 17 17 Cannabis is currently a Class B drug, along with ketamine and amphetamines. It was returned to Class B after being downgraded to Class C by Labour between 2004 and 2009. English teacher Ross Grainger runs a blog cataloguing cannabis-related violent crimes called Attacker Smoked Cannabis, and has written a book of the same name - inspired by the phrase he uses when searching for incidents. He told The Sun: 'I started this in 2017 when I was worried we could be going in the direction of decriminalisation and I realised there was a problem. 'I'd say there has been a steady violent episode every two weeks for the past 30 years - and what I log is the tip of the iceberg. 'I log murders, suicides, rapes, drug driving and terrorism. 'I was struck by how it is considered a peaceful drug that couldn't in any way lead to violence, yet the evidence I read as I began researching showed how strongly that is not the case, and how strongly it is linked to terrible violence. I'd say there has been a steady violent episode every two weeks for the past 30 years - and what I log is the tip of the iceberg... For me, there is no drug worse than cannabis Ross Grainger 'I see the same pattern emerging where a young person has cannabis from a young age, loses their mind and commits a terrible act of ultraviolence. 'You'd be forgiven for thinking it is legal in this country. Really it is decriminalised in all but name. 'For me, there is no drug worse than cannabis. Other drugs have horrendous side-effects, but what can be worse than actually losing your mind? 'It seems crazy to me that a Government can be so anti-smoking, and do so well in enforcing a ban, but then be so lax at enforcing cannabis legislation.' 'Cannabis took my son' 17 17 17 Heartbroken mum, Julie Romani, 60, from Bradford, West Yorks., knows only too well the harmful effects cannabis addiction can have after her son Jordan took his own life in September 2017, aged 27. He'd started smoking cannabis as a young teenager and couldn't function without it. The widowed property developer and mum-of-two, whose husband died aged 61 in 2011, when Jordan was 21, said: 'My husband was diagnosed with prostate cancer when Jordan was 14, so I think that's when he started to develop a habit. 'We didn't know what was going on. We put mood swings down to him being a teenager, but the emotional instability, nastiness and anger continued and got worse over the years. 'He was depressed and ended up where he couldn't get a grip on reality. He used to say the only thing that made him happy was his 'Happy Baccy'. 'He tried so hard to quit and had even stopped smoking it for three months before he died, but he couldn't cope with it and couldn't cope without it. 'Jordan had everything to live for but the cannabis took him.' After Jordan's death Julie set up a charity, Help For Dependency, and now raises awareness of the dangers of cannabis to mental health. 'Chicken and egg' situation 17 17 Investigative journalist Julian Hendy founded the charity Hundred Families after his father Philip, 75, was killed by mentally ill Stephen Newton in a drug-induced psychosis in 2007. Newton lay in wait for Philip to emerge from buying a newspaper before fatally stabbing him in the street in Bristol. Julian's charity has now backed over 300 families who have lost loved ones at the hands of mentally ill patients, many of whom were under the influence of cannabis. He said: 'Cannabis and serious mental health problems are very common to go together. Around 70 per cent of those with serious mental illness also abuse drugs. 'It is sometimes difficult to know which caused the other in a chicken and egg situation. 'There's a lot that needs to be done in treating mental illness and stopping patients from being involved in drugs that can cause schizophrenia and make mental illness worse. 'In the case of my dad, the services knew this chap took drugs and they didn't do anything to stop him taking these drugs. Jordan tried so hard to quit and had even stopped smoking it for three months before he died, but he couldn't cope with it and couldn't cope without it. Jordan had everything to live for but the cannabis took him Julie Romani 'The death of my dad was very preventable. They should have done better to save my dad, they didn't do so, and I see that in lots of cases. 'My father's killer got a murder conviction, which you don't always get. It was found that he had made the dangerous choice of taking drugs that caused him to become psychotic and murder and therefore he was held responsible and jailed for 16 years in October 2008. 'Yet in the case of Valdo Calocane, who committed the Nottingham murders of 19-year-old university students Grace O'Malley-Kumar and Barnaby Webber, and caretaker Ian Coates, 65, he was not tested for drugs, and was convicted on the grounds of diminished responsibility. 'Then you get shorter sentences in hospital which doesn't feel like justice for the families. 'He should have been tested for drugs at the time of his arrest and he wasn't. 'Right now people who present with problems due to cannabis will not be helped because cannabis is the cause, unless they have psychosis, and only then they sometimes get the help. 'Mental health services seem to be aware this is a common problem but they don't actually take enough effective steps to try to stop people becoming psychotic.' 17 17 Crazed cannabis killers JAKE NOTMAN Jake Notman, 28, was jailed for eight years and eight months after admitting to killing his girlfriend, Lauren Bloomer, during a psychotic episode triggered by a cannabis brownie. In November 2020, Notman stabbed Bloomer more than 30 times and ran her over outside their Tamworth home. Bloomer, 25, had begun recording on her phone after seeking help online for Notman's bad reaction to the drug. The audio recorded her screams and Notman's chilling words before the sound of a revving engine and a thud. Neighbours saw him run over her and return indoors without offering help. Notman later called 999, saying he'd been told he killed his girlfriend. Prosecutors initially charged him with murder, but psychiatric experts concluded he couldn't distinguish reality at the time. The court accepted his manslaughter plea. The judge said the killing was 'unexpected and frightful,' partly caused by the drug. PIETRO ADDIS Pietro Addis, 19, was jailed for 15 years in May 2023 after fatally stabbing his grandmother, Sue Addis, at her home in Withdean, East Sussex, in January 2021. Though he admitted the killing, a jury accepted his plea of diminished responsibility due to a psychotic episode, finding him guilty of manslaughter. Addis, diagnosed with ADHD in 2018, had been living with his grandmother but tensions rose over his cannabis use. At the time of the attack, Brighton restaurateur Sue was seeking professional help for him. On the day of the incident, Addis called 999, and police discovered Sue in the bath with 17 stab wounds. Judge Christine Laing KC stated that despite his mental condition, Addis bore significant responsibility. He must serve at least 10 years in custody and five on licence. DANIEL O'HARA WRIGHT Daniel O'Hara Wright, 24, was found not guilty of murdering his mum, Carole Wright, by reason of insanity after a harrowing trial at Oxford Crown Court. Suffering a severe psychotic episode, he believed his mother had become a demon and killed her and gouged out her eyes during a walk at Watlington Hill on October 23, 2020. The day of the killing, he woke up between 10am and 11am and smoked a small amount of cannabis 'through a hollowed out potato'. Witnesses saw him behaving erratically afterward, including biting off a chicken's head, climbing a pylon, and telling strangers he'd "fallen from the sky". Experts agreed he was deeply psychotic, with delusions of being a god or shaman. Psychiatric evidence confirmed he did not understand his actions were wrong. The jury, after over two hours of deliberation, accepted the insanity defence. Wright's deteriorating mental health had been evident for years prior to the killing. Angela, a community service officer and mum-of-five, is still fighting for answers, furious that her uncle's killer was reportedly never reprimanded for her cannabis use, despite allegedly having it on hospital grounds. 'Despite evidence showing the detrimental impact it has on mental health, I cannot see any evidence that anything is done to help mental health patients stop taking it,' she said. 'Borowy was refusing to take her own anti-psychotic medication and self-medicating instead, with disastrous consequences.' Borowy was sectioned in October 2022 for sacrificing two goats she stole from a farm in a witchcraft ceremony. One time she escaped she told police she would murder hundreds of people and had threatened a 'bloodbath'. She was also often found with knives. Tragically, after being granted supervised leave on August 7, Borowy ran off from the healthcare worker accompanying her and travelled to Sheffield where she killed Roger Leadbeater two days later. Angela is now incredibly wary of being around anyone she suspects is using cannabis. 'I went to a 90s festival just last month and I had to leave because the smell of cannabis in the air was too much for me,' she said. 'I didn't feel safe and I was scared of what it could do to the people smoking it. They could be a walking timebomb. 'I know what happened to Roger is rare, but he is proof that it can happen - and the reality is that cannabis is not rare. 'The problem with a murder caused by cannabis is that they are so tied up with mental health that the cannabis side of it gets forgotten. More needs to be done about prevention. 'Sadiq Khan needs to take a walk in our shoes for a week to see what he thinks of cannabis use then.' A spokesperson from the Home Office said: "We are continuing to work with partners across health, policing and wider public services to drive down drug use, ensure more people receive timely treatment and support, and make our streets and communities safer." 17 17
The Guardian
19 hours ago
- The Guardian
Family sues after funeral home sends son's brain in unmarked leaking box
Two funeral homes allegedly gave grieving parents their deceased son's brain in a box, which began to smell, leaked into their car and got on the father's hands when he moved it, according to an updated lawsuit filed this week. The father, Lawrence Butler, said the discovery was overwhelming at a news conference on Thursday, leaving a horrific memory that mars the other memories of a 'good young man', their son, Timothy Garlington. 'It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled death,' he said, emotion breaking his voice. Garlington's mother, Abbey Butler, stood nearby, wiping away tears. After Garlington's death in 2023, the Butlers had his remains shipped from one funeral home in Georgia, where their son died, to another where the family lived, in Pennsylvania, where they picked up his belongings, including a white cardboard box that contained an unlabeled red box. At Nix & Nix Funeral Homes, Abbey Butler tried but could not open the red box, said the Butlers' attorney, L Chris Stewart, at the news conference. Several days later, the red box, which was in the Butlers' car, began to smell and leak fluid, Stewart said. When Lawrence Butler picked it up, the fluid covered his hands, 'which was brain matter. It's insane,' Stewart said. When they called the funeral home in Georgia, Southern Cremations & Funerals at Cheatham Hill, they were told it was Garlington's brain and a mistake had been made, Stewart said. The Butlers returned the box to Nix & Nix, he said. The company that owns Southern Cremations, ASV Partners, declined to comment when contacted by the Associated Press. 'The parents' last memory is holding their son's brain,' said Stewart in an interview with the AP. 'I had to get rid of that car,' Lawrence Butler said, 'I just couldn't stand the idea that the remains were in that car.' The lawsuit says that both funeral homes negligently mishandled human remains and intentionally, wantonly or recklessly inflicted emotional distress. Stewart said he had consulted other funeral homes, and that at no point in the process is the brain 'separated from body in that fashion and shipped in that fashion'. If it ever is, he said, then it is in a sealed bag and labeled as a biohazard. Whether or not Nix & Nix knew a brain was inside the box, Stewart alleged, they should not have handed the box over to the Butlers because it was not on the list of belongings sent from Southern Cremations. Julian Nix, the manager of the eponymous funeral home, told the AP that 'it was definitely not our fault' because Southern Cremations had sent them the unlabeled box. Nix told local news that his team believed the box held personal effects and that other funeral homes usually only send intact remains. Nix said that once they learned what was inside the box, they reported it to authorities. An investigation had been done by the state board overseeing funeral homes that found Nix & Nix wasn't responsible, he said, but the documents proving that were not yet available. The Butlers are seeking compensation and answers to what went wrong. They also hope the lawsuit acts as a warning so that similar incidents will not happen again. 'There's no excuse, there is zero excuse for this type of error to happen. For the Georgia funeral home, Southern Cremations, to ship unmarked, bio-hazardous material. For the funeral home here in Philadelphia to hand the parents an unmarked box, not examined, not on a list of the inventory that was the personal items, to not check it,' said Stewart. 'They have not received a single apology to this day from any funeral home.' Garlington, a veteran of the US marines who was working in school financial aid in Atlanta, according to his LinkedIn, has since been buried in Washington Crossing national cemetery. Stewart, who declined to say how Garlington died at age 56, said the Butlers still do not know whether his brain was buried with the rest of his remains. 'They fear, which is totally understandable: is he resting in peace?' he said.
The Independent
21 hours ago
- The Independent
Marine veteran's brain returned by funeral home in an unmarked and leaking box, lawsuit claims
A couple is suing two funeral homes after their veteran son's brain was returned in an unmarked cardboard box that was leaking 'biohazardous liquid,' a lawsuit alleges. Lawrence and Abbey Butler are suing Nix & Nix Funeral Homes in Pennsylvania and Southern Cremations & Funeral in Georgia for the 'mishandling' of the remains of their son Timothy Garlington, a Marine veteran who died in November 2023. That month, the couple hired Southern Cremations & Funerals to transport their son's remains to Nix & Nix Funeral Home in Philadelphia. A week later, Lawrence Butler picked up a 'white, unmarked cardboard box' they thought contained his personal belongings, the filing states. The box began to smell and leak fluids in his car. When the couple tried to remove the box, 'biohazardous liquid spilled' onto them, the lawsuit alleges. They reached out to the funeral homes to learn that the box contained their late son's brain. "The family has been destroyed twice," their lawyer, L. Chris Stewart, told Fox 5. The couple says they suffered 'serious mental and emotional distress' as a result of the funeral homes' mishandling of their son's remains, the suit stated. It called the defendants' conduct 'extreme and outrageous.' They've accused the defendants of negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress, among other claims, for an unspecified amount in damages. 'It was, and it is still, in my heart that I got in my car and I smelled death,' Lawrence Butler told the Associated Press. 'I had to get rid of that car,' he added. 'I just couldn't stand the idea that the remains were in that car.' Stewart told the AP that after speaking to several other funeral homes, he learned the brain is not typically 'separated from [the] body in that fashion and shipped in that fashion.' In the circumstances that the body parts are separated, they are labeled as a biohazard. 'There's no excuse, there is zero excuse for this type of error to happen. For the Georgia funeral home, Southern Cremations, to ship unmarked, bio-hazardous material. For the funeral home here in Philadelphia to hand the parents an unmarked box, not examined, not on a list of the inventory that was the personal items, to not check it,' Stewart told the AP. 'They have not received a single apology to this day from any funeral home.' The owner of Nix & Nix Funeral Homes said that his team didn't know that the box contained brain matter and noted that the state board did a thorough investigation and cleared them of wrongdoing. "Any body parts should be in the body. I don't understand why they would send his brains in a box, a regular box," Julian Nix, the owner of Nix and Nix Funeral Home, told Fox 5. "We immediately reported it to the state board and the medical examiner for inspection," Nix told the outlet. "When the state board investigated, they said that we did everything correct."
