Bella Culley home after early Georgia jail release

Bella Culley, a 19-year-old pregnant teenager from Billingham, Teesside, has returned home after being released from prison in Georgia. Culley, who admitted to drug trafficking charges, had initially faced up to 20 years in jail. However, prosecutors revised the terms of her plea bargain, leading to her release. She had spent nearly six months in custody, including time in Georgia’s Rustavi Prison Number Five, before being transferred to a ‘mother and baby’ unit due to her advanced pregnancy. Culley was detained on May 10 after authorities discovered 12kg of marijuana and 2kg of hashish in her luggage at Tbilisi International Airport. Her family paid £137,000 to reduce her sentence to two years. On Monday, she walked free from court in Tbilisi, accompanied by her mother, and arrived at Luton Airport on an Easyjet flight. Culley claimed she was coerced into trafficking drugs by gangsters who allegedly tortured her with a hot iron. Georgian police have launched a separate investigation into her allegations of coercion.