Pregnant Bella Culley has arrived back in the UK with her mother after being freed from a Georgian prison.
The ‘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 shows a heavily-pregnant Bella alongside her mother Lyanne Kennedy, 44, walking out of the arrivals section with two other people.
Lyanne appears to be dragging the cream coloured suitcase which Bella used to 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 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.
Bella Culley has arrived back in the UK with her mother after being freed from a Georgian prison
Heavily pregnant teenage drugs mule Bella Culley arrives back in the UK at Luton airport
Images captured at London ‘s Luton Airport on Tuesday evening shows Bella alongside her mother Lyanne Kennedy, 44, walking out of the arrivals section with two other people
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.
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.
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.
This is a breaking news story. More to follow.
