Bella Culley has arrived back in the UK with her mother after being freed from a Georgian prison.
The pregnant suspected drugs mule, 19, flew in from the Georgian capital Tbilisi after spending five months in a hellhole jail following her arrest for smuggling £200,000 of marijuana and hashish from Thailand to the ex-Soviet state.
Images captured at London’s Luton Airport on Tuesday evening show heavily-pregnant Bella walking out of the arrivals section with her mother Lyanne Kennedy, 44, and two other people.
Lyanne appears to be dragging the cream coloured suitcase which Bella used to allegedly smuggle the drugs stash back in May this year.
Airport security staff can be seen tailing the group as they emerged through a door before the pair disappeared off to another area.
Bella, from Billingham in Teeside, was arrested six months ago at Tbilisi airport and accused of attempting to smuggle 12kg of marijuana and 2kg of hashish into the country.
She was found guilty by a Georgian court on Monday and sentenced to five months and 25 days in prison, the total time she had already spent in custody.
Her family also paid a £137,000 fine as part of a plea deal.
Culley and her mother both broke down in tears as the verdict was read out.
Georgian prosecutors were considering a two-year sentence, but ‘decided to consider the time she has already served’, case prosecutor Vakhtang Tsalughelashvili said, and asked for her release.
The teenager was informed of the decision shortly before the court session began and Lynane said she had believed that she would only see her daughter in person again when her grandchild was born.
‘It was totally unexpected,’ she said.
Culley’s lawyer, Malkhaz Salakaia, said the teenager would be given her passport and would be free to leave the country.
While in court, she thanked everyone present for finalising Culley’s plea deal. Culley initially faced a maximum penalty of up to 15 years or life in prison.
While the judge agreed to release her, he cautioned that there would be no mitigating circumstance if she repeats the offence.
He said: ‘The sentence is five months and 24 days and an additional fine of 500,000 Georgian lari. The arrest will be rescinded as the time spent in preliminary detention will be taken into account.’
Culley, ecstatic at the news, hugged her mother after the decision was read out and said: ‘I didn’t expect this at all. This is a huge surprise.’
When asked if she had any complaints about her time in prison, she responded that she had none.
However, when reporters asked her the same question outside court, she looked at her mum, who shook her head and said: ‘Bella, no’.
Her conditions at the prison are said to have been grim – she reportedly was forced to boil pasta in a kettle and toast bread over a candle.
Her cell at No 5 Women’s Penitentiary near Tbilisi, also had a hole in the ground, used as a toilet.
As the pair landed back in London on Tuesday evening, Lyanne appeared to be wheeling a case matching the one pictured following Bella’s arrest, which was stuffed with drugs in vacuum-sealed packages.
Bella told a court that she had been forced to traffic the stash from Thailand by a gang who branded her with an iron and forced her to watch execution videos.
The teenager was set to land at London Luton Airport at 7pm after arriving for her five-and-a-half hour flight just 10 minutes before check-in was due to close.
Her and her mother headed straight to the Speedy Boarding gate and made it safely through security.
On Monday, Bella called her father, Niel, 49, to tell him: ‘I’m not in jail anymore’.
Niel picked up the phone and said: ‘Hey princess’, before she chuckled and told him she was no longer locked up.
An elated Niel then shouted: ‘Wahey! That’s brilliant. Brilliant.’ She thanked him and informed him she would call again once she got to her hotel, and added: ‘Love you, Dad, bye.’
It was reported that Bella’s release followed a letter from the British Embassy to the president of Georgia urging him to grant a pardon.
Former Man City striker Mikheil Kavelashvili, who rules the Black Sea nation, received a letter from the UK calling on him to show leniency on compassionate grounds.
They cited the fact that the 19-year-old is pregnant and would have given birth behind bars before Christmas under the original sentence.
A source told the Mail: ‘The British Embassy has sent a letter suggesting that the President consider granting a pardon to this young woman, noting that she is in a late stage of pregnancy and has already signed a plea agreement.
‘They added that they stand ready to provide the case files, should they be required. The President has forwarded this letter to the Pardon Commission for review.’
Following this, a last-minute reprieve was granted to Culley in a shock to her family at Tbilisi City Court yesterday morning.
An FCDO spokesman said: ‘We are supporting a British woman who was detained in Georgia and are in contact with her family.’
