A 19-year-old British mum-to-be faces a nightmare in a grim Georgian jail after her family failed to stump up the full £215,000 fine demanded to secure her freedom.
Bella Culley’s Jail Sentence Stuns Family
Bella Culley, a nursing student from Billingham, Teesside, was slammed with a two-year sentence at Tbilisi City Court. She must now serve 18 brutal months inside Women’s Penitentiary No 5, a notorious ex-Soviet prison, after her sentence was reduced by six months for time served. The heavily pregnant teenager faces giving birth behind bars.
Her parents, charity worker Lyanne Kennedy, 44, and oil rig technician Niel Culley, 49, raised a massive £140,000 — but fell short of the full £215,000 fine demanded by Georgian prosecutors. The family had until 28 October to pay up, but the plea deal collapsed, forcing the full sentence on Bella.
“They did budge on the amount, but we still couldn’t raise that amount,” said Ms Kennedy, keeping details of the talks under wraps.
Pregnant & Panicked: Baby Due Before Christmas
In court, a shaken Bella anxiously asked her lawyer, “Will I be able to take the baby with me if I go back to jail?” He assured her, “Nobody is going to take the baby away from you.”
Her mother now plans to move to Georgia to support her grandchild and keep the newborn out of jail.
“We want to know more about house arrest – I would have to come to Georgia to help,” Ms Kennedy revealed.
Despite her advanced pregnancy, Judge Giorgi Gelashvili denied bail, stating “no legal grounds for changing her conditions.”
Drugs, Coercion & A Desperate Gamble
- Bella was caught at Tbilisi Airport with 14kg of cannabis and hashish worth around £200,000.
- She claims a violent criminal gang forced her to carry the drugs, showing her beheading videos and threatening her family.
- At an earlier hearing, Bella pleaded guilty but said she was tortured and coerced, and even claimed she thought “Tbilisi” was a country, not a city.
Now 35 weeks pregnant, Bella has been held since May in a prison notorious for its harsh, degrading Soviet-era conditions.
UK Outrage & A Long Road Ahead
Bella’s plight has sparked fury back home, with criticism aimed at the British Embassy for minimal support. Her lawyer says officials have visited only once since her arrest.
The Foreign Office insists: “We are supporting a British woman who is detained in Georgia and are in contact with her family and the local authorities.”
Tameside Council is helping the family through this agonising wait. It’s still unclear if Bella will serve her full term in Georgia, be granted house arrest, or even extradited back to the UK.
The final sentencing hearing is set for Monday, 3 November, in Tbilisi City Court. Bella’s fight for freedom—and a safe birth—is far from over.
