TEENAGE drug mule suspect Bella Culley faces 15 years in jail despite her plea that she was forced to peddle drugs from Thailand, prosecutors have revealed.
Bella, 19, was caught in the former Soviet state of Georgia in May with £200,000 worth of cannabis in her bags.
A Georgian prosecutor told The Sun that they have evidence the Brit ‘acted with prior intent’
SuppliedBella Culley seen in court at the beginning of July as her devastated family watched on[/caption]
She is seeking a plea bargain deal, claiming she was burned with a hot iron and shown a beheading video by a Thai gang, which forced her to fly to Tbilisi..
But, speaking for the first time, Georgian prosecutor Vakhtang Tsaluqelashvili revealed that he plans to contest the pregnant teenager’s claims.
And he added that the state has found evidence which proves her smuggling crime was premeditated and coolly carried out.
Mr Tsaluqelashvili told The Sun: “We have evidence confirming that the defendant acted with prior intent.
“She passed through several airports, and at no stage did she display any such, let’s say, position or behaviour that would make us think this was not an intentional crime.
“Among other things, at the moment of her arrest, she did not say anything of this kind to the Georgian customs officers either.
“Given the gravity of the offence committed, the minimum expected sentence is 15 years – even taking into account the mitigating circumstances.”
Bella got pregnant after a fling with an unidentified British man on the first leg of her disastrous backpacking trip and revealed she was expecting a baby boy in court on Thursday.
The naive youngster from Billingham, Teesside, said she was forced to board a plane and never saw the baggage containing 31lbs of cannabis and hashish until she was arrested.
She also claimed she had no idea where Georgia was and tried to raise the alarm when she boarded a flight from Bangkok.
But CCTV produced by Thai police does not show her attempting to alert officers at the airport.
Mr Tsaluqelashvil said a plea bargain deal between the prosecution and defence was still possible – but may still result in jail time or a suspended sentence plus a fine.
Her lawyer Malkhaz Salakaia said that a plea bargain for his client to return to Britain was “quite likely” adding the “opportunity has been mentioned several times”.
Mr Salakaia told Tbilisi City Court yesterday: “Bella has an obvious health condition – she is soon to be a mother to a baby boy and I want her to experience it while free.
“It’s a pivotal moment in one’s life, especially one so young. She is only 19.”
Mr Salakaia added: “There was no malicious intent on Bella’s part – she was pressured and forced and there is irrefutable evidence of that.
Prime TimeShe was caught at Tblisi International Airport with 30 pounds of marijuana and hashish in her luggage on May 10[/caption]
Bella’s mum Lyanne Kennedy (centre) leaving court in Tbilisi on Thursday
“Her testimony contains even the names and last names of the individuals who forced her to transport it, she was threatened, as well as her family, including her mother who is present today.
“I want to underline that she didn’t hand in the baggage – all she knows is that there is this luggage and she will be met by certain individuals once she arrives.
“The bag wasn’t even locked, and it went through three countries and two continents, while Bella to this day is unaware whether Tbilisi is a country or a city.
“Bella didn’t commit this crime and there is no grounds to doubt her testimony. I hope you are convinced your honor and knowing your past practice.
“I am sure she won’t be found guilty.”
Bella – who has been supported at hearings by her mum Lyanne Kennedy and oil rig worker dad Niel Culley – is due back in court in the Georgian capital Tbilisi on September 2.
Inside the dark world of Brit ‘drug mules’
A SLEW of drug mule arrests involving Brits have emerged in the last few months.
In April and May, two Brit women were arrested abroad for alleged drug smuggling.
Bella was the first after she allegedly tried to smuggle a suitcase of weed into Georgia.
Meanwhile, former air stewardess Charlotte May Lee was also caught allegedly trying to smuggle drugs worth £1.2million into Sri Lanka.
Her two suitcases were said to have been stuffed with 46kg of a synthetic cannabis strain known as kush — which is 25 times more potent than opioid fentanyl.
If found guilty, South Londoner Charlotte could face a 25-year sentence.
As a young mum was detained in Germany for allegedly smuggling cannabis in her bags on a flight from Thailand – in yet another shocking case.
Glamorous Cameron Bradford, 21, from Knebworth, Herts, was detained at Munich Airport on April 21 as she tried to collect her luggage.
It comes as a Brit couple claiming to be tourists from Thailand have been busted with more than 33kg of cannabis in their suitcases at a Spanish airport.
The pair were picked out by suspicious cops at Valencia Airport after displaying a “nervous and evasive attitude” and are now behind bars on drug trafficking charges.
Experts told The Sun how wannabe Brit Insta stars are being lured by cruel gangs into carting drugs across the world.
Then last month, a six-year-old British boy was arrested in Mauritius suspected of smuggling part of a £1.6million dope haul stuffed inside his wheelie case.
The lad was picked up by customs officials along with his mum and five other Brits as they arrived on the tropical island.
Authorities branded the use of a child in the audacious drug smuggling plot as “inhumane”.
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