logo
British teen 'drug mule' locked up in a horror Georgia jail 'is finally reunited with her father' after he jetted to the ex-Soviet state to be by her side

British teen 'drug mule' locked up in a horror Georgia jail 'is finally reunited with her father' after he jetted to the ex-Soviet state to be by her side

Daily Mail​22-05-2025

A British teenage 'drugs mule' locked up in a Georgia jail has finally been reunited with her father.
Bella Culley, 18, was arrested after she allegedly tried to smuggle 14kg of cannabis into the country earlier this month.
As soon as the news broke on May 13, Bella's father, Niel Culley, 49, flew to the ex-Soviet state to be by his daughter's side.
But, Niel was not allowed to see Bella until he visited her at Women's Prison No.5 in Rustavi yesterday.
The 49-year old was spotted entering the prison with a bag before leaving without it 45 minutes later, presumably having dropped off some supplies to his daughter.
He has vowed to stay in Georgia for 'as long as it takes' to bring Bella back home.
The teenager, from Billingham on Teesside, had to write to prison authorities requesting permission before her family could visit her.
The reunion came just days after Bella revealed she has been left freezing in her jail cell and is receiving no medical attention despite telling officials she is pregnant.
As soon as the news broke on May 13 Bella's father, Niel Culley, 49, flew out to the ex-Soviet state to be by his daughter's side. But, Niel had not been allowed to see Bella until he visited her at Women's Prison No.5 in Rustavi yesterday
The 49-year old was spotted going into the prison with a bag before leaving without it 45 minutes later - presumably having dropped off some supplies to his daughter
She asked for a jumper and warmer clothes and requested fresh fruit after being visited by local celebrity lawyer Mariam Kublashvili.
Bella, who is sharing a cell with two inmates called Anastasya and Ani, also requested tuna which Ms Kublashvili believes may be 'pregnancy cravings'.
'She is pregnant and needs medical care which she complained she wasn't getting,' the glamorous Georgian lawyer told the Mail after a 30-minute meeting with her on May 19.
'She asked me for tuna fish which I thought was odd and might have been something to do with pregnancy cravings - but fish cannot be sent in.
'She told me no tests, checks or medical examinations have been done.
'She said she asked for a doctor, but the doctor wasn't speaking English and they couldn't understand each other.'
Ms Kublashvili, who previously represented speedboat killer Jack Shepherd when he was caught in Georgia, has been closely following the case and said she has great sympathy for Bella's predicament.
While she is not representing the teenager, the former model used a routine visit to her prison to meet her and offered to use her legal clout to get her supplies.
Ms Kublashivili, 39, who has specialised in helping female prisoners, said Bella was 'visibly cold' in the drafty meeting room and requested a jumper as she only had on a thin dark green top and blue leggings.
She said: 'My Initial impression was very positive - she is very open, very pleasant, and charming. She doesn't fit the profile of a drug trafficker at all.
'For anyone, like me, with experience in dealing with such cases, it would be quite obvious that she is a victim here - she's been used and manipulated.
'I have a 20 year old child myself and can only imagine what her parents must be feeling.'
Bella was arrested at Tbilisi Airport on May 11 and found with 12kg of cannabis and 2kg of hashish after getting a £550 Air Arabia flight from Bangkok via Sharjah.
She is sharing a cell with two other women inmates, but it was unclear what crimes they have been accused of or committed, Ms Kublashvili said.
The lawyer added: 'She is getting along well with her inmates – two of them, Anastasya and Ani.
'She asked me to get in touch with her dad – she said she knew he was getting lawyers and that carried significant financial costs.
'But I have a great deal of experience helping women in situations like this and want to do all I can for her - and I'm offering my service free of charge.'
Ms Kublashivili said Bella was 'very polite' and 'shy', saying thank you 'every five minutes'.
The meeting was the first time the teenage Brit has been heard from since she appeared in Tbilisi city court last week appearing shell shocked dressed only in a skimpy white top and shorts.
She had been travelling around South East Asia and only appears to have clothes for the beach despite the cold conditions of her jail cell.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

EXCLUSIVE Jail bosses investigate video showing 'prison governor walking out of city centre brothel'
EXCLUSIVE Jail bosses investigate video showing 'prison governor walking out of city centre brothel'

Daily Mail​

timean hour ago

  • Daily Mail​

EXCLUSIVE Jail bosses investigate video showing 'prison governor walking out of city centre brothel'

An investigation has been launched into a video allegedly showing a prison governor walking out of a brothel, MailOnline can reveal. Footage shows a man dressed in a grey suit and a white shirt walking out of a door between two shuttered shopfronts in Sheffield. He briefly glances to one side before walking out of view of the camera, which appears to be on a vehicle dashboard. MailOnline has shared the video with the Ministry of Justice, which confirmed the incident is 'currently under internal investigation'. If criminals became aware a prison governor had visited a brothel they could use this information for blackmail, one former governor warned today. The premises, GFE, describes itself as a 'premier massage parlour' that offers 'the best choice of girls, all excited, fun and guaranteed to offer you satisfaction'. When a MailOnline reporter visited the seedy establishment, he was told to go into the waiting area. Three skimpily dressed women then appeared from behind a curtain and offered their services. A receptionist confirmed they all provided GFE - girlfriend experience - in which sex workers perform intimate acts. The other male customer then selected one of the women. At this point, the reporter left. The premises shown in the video is at one end of a row of shops and next door to a massage parlour. The man was seen walking out of the door seen here behind the white car The video has emerged at a time the behaviour of prison staff is under intense scrutiny following a series of affairs between officers and inmates. There is also an increased focus on the deteriorating security situation in British jails after several serious assaults on guards. MailOnline knows the name of the prison governor who is alleged to be in the video. One insider at his jail said: 'This video was the talk of the town when the video emerged. Everyone was saying is it him or isn't it him? 'If it is him he has not really done any harm to anyone apart from his marriage, but one thing is for sure - he appears to have f****d up royally.' Ian Acheson, who worked for the Prison Service for over a decade and held a variety of senior roles, said the footage was concerning. 'By virtue of their huge discretionary power, prison governors are particularly vulnerable if their behaviour can be exploited by criminals,' he told MailOnline. 'Blackmail and corruption are the most obvious examples. An investigation shows that these unproven allegations are being taken seriously. 'The public rightly expect a very high standard of personal conduct from senior law enforcement officials. We should also respect due process in this case.' Reviews of GFE posted on Google. A Prison Service spokesman said: 'This incident is currently under internal investigation. It would be inappropriate to comment further until this has concluded.' A series of sex scandals that have rocked the prison service in recent years. This includes the case of prison officer Cherri-Ann Austin-Saddington, 29, who became besotted with a sex offender Bradley Trengrove after he was moved to HMP The Verne in Portland, Dorset. The pair embarked on a six month relationship which involved them often having sex in prison workshops while nobody was around. The female prison warden even got pregnant by Trengrove, although she later lost the baby. During the affair, Austin-Saddington smuggled a mobile phone into the Category C prison for her lover so they could communicate. The mother-of-three saved his name in her mobile under 'husband to be'. She received a suspended prison sentence and is now in a relationship with another man. Bradley Trengrove (pictured) was serving a 13 year extended jail sentence for raping a woman and having sexual activity with a child in 2013 and 2014 There have also been a series of serious security breaches inside jails involving attacks on prison staff. Last month, a male warden was taken to hospital with 'serious injuries' after being stabbed at HMP Long Lartin. It followed a string of other assaults involving prisoners, including Manchester Arena terrorist Hashem Abedi. Meanwhile, convicted murderer John Mansfield was killed during a brutal attack at a high security prison in April. The 63-year-old was hit in the head with a weight, MailOnline revealed at the time. Experts have warned of a 'collapse in security' across the UK prison system amid what the prison officers' union described as 'out of control' violence.

From a Russian prison, US schoolteacher tells lawyers he was grabbed by Moscow's soldiers
From a Russian prison, US schoolteacher tells lawyers he was grabbed by Moscow's soldiers

Reuters

time4 hours ago

  • Reuters

From a Russian prison, US schoolteacher tells lawyers he was grabbed by Moscow's soldiers

LONDON, June 13 (Reuters) - A 73-year-old American jailed by Russia as a mercenary for Ukraine protested his innocence when his U.S.-based legal team and family finally tracked him down in April, months after he vanished into the vast Russian prison system, they said. Stephen Hubbard, a retired schoolteacher, was sentenced last October to almost seven years in a penal colony after a court found him guilty of serving in a Ukrainian territorial defence unit against Russian forces, tasked with manning a checkpoint. Russian state media reported that he had entered a guilty plea in the closed-door trial. The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has not been granted consular access to Hubbard, a State Department spokesperson said, adding that U.S. officials have requested his immediate release. Martin De Luca, his U.S.-based lawyer, told Reuters it was not until this April that his legal team learned Hubbard was being held in a facility in the Mordovia region, east of Moscow. "The first thing Hubbard wanted to talk about when he was able to make contact with the outside world was: 'It's not true,'" said De Luca, who made his first public comments on the case to the New York Times this week. "They (Russian soldiers) grabbed him from his house. He was not in any combat or military unit", De Luca recalled Hubbard saying. Joseph Coleman, a son from Hubbard's first marriage who lives in Cyprus, said he spoke to his father in prison by phone for less than five minutes on May 28. "He did sound a little down," Coleman told Reuters. "He said, 'I'm tired of being a slave.'" At least eight other Americans are currently imprisoned in Russia, which has stepped up arrests of alleged mercenaries for Ukraine since its 2022 invasion of its neighbour. But Hubbard is the only one designated by the U.S. as "wrongfully detained," making him a top candidate to be returned in any future prisoner exchange. The Kremlin said last month the two sides were discussing a possible swap involving nine people on each side. A document written on the letterhead of the IK-12 penal colony, signed by a prison official and seen by Reuters, says that Hubbard is incarcerated there. Russia's federal prison service did not respond to an emailed request for confirmation from Reuters. Other U.S. citizens previously jailed in Russia have been incarcerated in the same region. Hubbard, a Michigan native who taught English abroad for decades, had moved to Izium in eastern Ukraine in 2014 to be with a Ukrainian girlfriend, but by 2022 he was living there alone, his family said. Russian forces captured Izium in April 2022. After his arrest, his family struggled to establish what had happened to him. They caught glimpses of him in videos posted online in pro-war Russian Telegram channels. One showed what appeared to be a staged interrogation. In another, Hubbard appeared with his hands zip-tied and whimpered as a man slapped him with a plastic sandal. His sister, Patricia Hubbard Fox, identified her brother in both videos in conversations with Reuters. The agency could not verify when and where the videos were taken. "He is so non-military," Hubbard Fox told Reuters last year, expressing doubt that her brother would have taken up arms for any state. "He never had a gun, owned a gun, done any of that... He's more of a pacifist." After Hubbard's trial, De Luca and his team at a U.S. law firm began working to secure his release. They picked up the case in late February. It wasn't easy to find him, De Luca said. "Russia is still a functioning country. There are laws, bureaucracies, processes that get followed," he said. The team located Hubbard at the penal colony in Molochnitsa, a very small town about a seven-hour drive from Moscow. De Luca said the team has been able to call Hubbard three times since April. He described him as weak after months living in a prisoner-of-war camp.

Londonderry: Man jailed twice in one week for driving offences
Londonderry: Man jailed twice in one week for driving offences

BBC News

time5 hours ago

  • BBC News

Londonderry: Man jailed twice in one week for driving offences

A man who was jailed earlier this week for ramming a police vehicle has received a further prison sentence for separate driving McLaughlin, 29, of Bligh's Gardens in Londonderry, was handed an additional three-month sentence and a further 18-month driving ban on Friday for offences committed on 17 October was jailed for two years at Londonderry Crown Court on Thursday after driving dangerously in the Shantallow area of Derry on 11 August 2024 and ramming a police his sentence on Friday, he will now spend a total of two years and three months in custody, along with a combined driving disqualification of 36 months. Appearing at Londonderry Magistrates' Court on Friday, McLaughlin admitted dangerous driving, driving while unfit, failing to stop for police and other motoring court was that police observed a vehicle being driven erratically in the city and moved to stop it on 17 police approached, the vehicle reversed at speed and they eventually had to make contact with it to prevent it from driving occupants of the vehicle fled and McLaughlin was detained a short distance told police during interview that he had flagged down the vehicle, believing it was being driven by a friend, but then discovered it was said he had not been driving the vehicle and claimed he had "blacked out" when police counsel said that, at the time, McLaughlin had been using drugs and said her client had "taken a realistic approach" and pleaded guilty to the Judge Ted Magill said that McLaughlin had rammed a police car and added that it was "a wonder no one was seriously injured".He imposed a consecutive sentence of three months and disqualified him from driving for 18 months.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store