Bella May Culley sent final message before vanishing on holiday - and turning up in hellhole jail
Bella May Culley, 18, faces decades in a prison in Georgia as her shocked family reacts to her arrest, some 4,000 miles away from where they thought she was on holiday
The mother of a British teenager facing life behind bars in a hellhole prison in Georgia for drug smuggling has revealed the final message she sent before she vanished.
Bella May Culley, 18, flew out to the Philippines over Easter with a friend before they travelled to Thailand, when she suddenly disappeared. A huge international search was launched and her relatives flew out to the country to look for her when they got the news she had been found - around 4,000 miles away in Georgia ’s only female prison, Tbilisi Prison No.5, on suspicion of smuggling 30 pounds of cannabis.
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The teenager now faces decades behind bars in the ex-Soviet nation if she is found guilty.
Bella’s mother Lyanne told Teesside Live of the last message she heard from her daughter before she vanished: "She flew out to the Philippines after Easter with a friend and she was there for three weeks. She was posting loads of pictures and then she went to Thailand on about May 3.
"The last message she sent was to me was on Saturday at 5.30pm saying she was going to Facetime me later. That was the last message anyone has received from what we can figure out up to now.
"I’m just waiting on her dad who is now in Bangkok to get back with any more information. I just want her home and safe or to hear her gorgeous little voice."
Footage later emerged of Culley in handcuffs as she was being led into a police station in Tbilisi. Local media in the country reported she was found to have "34 hermetically sealed packages containing marijuana... as well as 20 packages of hashish" in her possession at the airport.
On its website, the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) states it cannot get Brits out of jail in Georgia or help anyone get special treatment because they are British. Its website has a page specifically about arrests in the nation, in which it states "prison conditions vary".
It added: “It is usual in Georgia for cells/dormitories to be shared. There is no set maximum number of occupants, rather it depends on the type of facility, size of the room, etc."
Cleveland Police said in its latest update on the teenager’s arrest: ”We have this afternoon had confirmation from the authorities in Georgia an 18-year-old woman from Billingham has been arrested there on suspicion of drugs offences and she remains in their custody.”
A FCDO spokesperson told the Mirror: “We are supporting the family of a British woman who is detained in Georgia and are in contact with the local authorities.”