Dad of drug smuggling teen who's facing life in prison 'considering selling house to raise legal fees'
15 May 2025, 16:13
The father of a British teen facing life in jail for drug smuggling is considering selling his home to raise money for legal fees.
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Niel Culley has been urged to sell his property in Billingham, County Durham to raise funds.
His daughter, Bella May Culley, is facing life in jail in a ‘hellhole’ prison after being arrested on suspicion of smuggling 30 pounds of cannabis.
The 18-year-old allegedly carried the drugs into Georgia, where she was detained at Tbilisi international airport.
Bella May's granddad William said he had been told by his son to market the County Durham house as they scramble to raise cash for legal help, according to The Mirror.
Read more: British teen 'fighting for his life' after plunging from third-floor Ibiza apartment
William has also insisted his daughter is "not an international drug trafficker".
"I'm terrified that she's in for a long sentence. I might never see her again - I'm 80 years old. She's got sucked into something, somehow. She's not an international drug trafficker.
"Can she even tell them who's given her the drugs to take over? I bet she doesn't. These people keep out of the way. It's all just very strange and at the moment we just don't have any answers. We don't know what to think," The Manchester Evening News reports.
Ms Culley could now face two decades or more behind bars in the country's only female prison, Tbilisi Prison No.5, located 45 minutes away from the ex-Soviet capital.
According to Ms Culley's current lawyer, the teen is 'terrified and confused'.
Local media shared footage of her being led in handcuffs into a police station.
She is alleged to have "34 hermetically sealed packages containing marijuana... as well as 20 packages of hashish" in her possession at the airport.
She is thought to have lost contact with her family members during a trip to Thailand around May 3.She had been regularly posting on social media up to that point and last shared a photo on Facebook on May 5.T
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.
