Bella May Culley, 18, who reportedly vanished while on holiday in Thailand, allegedly carried 13 kilos of drugs into Eastern Europe
A British teenager who is facing years in a “hellhole” prison in Georgia after being arrested on suspicion of smuggling 13 kilograms of cannabis has reportedly claimed she is pregnant.
Bella May Culley, 18, allegedly carried the drugs into the ex-Soviet country where she was detained at Shota Rustaveli Tbilisi International Airport.
Days earlier, Culley, from Billingham in County Durham, was reported missing while on holiday in Thailand.
Georgian media said Culley was found with “34 hermetically sealed packages containing marijuana were found in the passenger’s bag, as well as 20 packages of hashish”.
The aspiring nurse could now face two decades or more behind bars in Georgia’s only female prison, with reports claiming the inside is in a state of decay.
The Committee for the Prevention of Torture, a European human rights group, previously described the conditions at the facility as "degrading," "inhuman" and as such "an affront to a civilised society".
Local media shared footage of Culley being led in handcuffs into a police station in the Georgian capital.
According to the Daily Mail, Culley told Tbilisi's City Court she is “pregnant”.
She will now undergo a medical examination where doctors will assess her claims.
Culley’s backpacking journey across Europe and Asia started in the Philippines just after Easter, it is understood.
She had been regularly posting her travels on social media, but lost contact with her family while in Thailand in early May.
Her disappearance meant that her father Neil and sister Kerrie flew out to the Thai capital Bangkok in search of her.
But Cleveland Police, which had been assisting with the family's missing person's enquiry, said on Tuesday night: "Update on Billingham woman who was reported missing overseas.
“Confirmation from the authorities in Georgia that an 18-year-old woman from Billingham has been arrested there on suspicion of drugs offences and that she remains in their custody."
Before police confirmed the arrest, her mother Lyanne told Teesside Live: “I just want her home and safe or to hear her gorgeous little voice.”
She later told The Sun: “I really didn’t want her to go to Thailand. I begged her to come home. I don’t trust some of the boys over there.
“But she wanted to meet up with some friends she made over there on a previous trip. I don’t know who any of them are.
“When she stopped answering messages, I assumed it was because she was flying back to surprise me. But then nothing.”
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office states it cannot get Britons out of custody in Georgia or help anyone get special treatment because they are British.
Its website has a page specifically about detainments in the nation, in which it says "prison conditions vary".
