Everything we know about Bella May Culley — the British teen who faces jail after vanishing in Thailand

The mystery surrounding the case of Bella May Culley – the British teenager arrested in Georgia after vanishing 4,000 miles away in Thailand – seems to deepen by the day.

The 18-year-old was arrested in Tbilisi charged with illegally buying, possessing and importing a large quantity of drugs.

It comes after police seized ‘34 hermetically sealed packages containing marijuana … as well as 20 packages of hashish’ at the Georgian capital’s airport.

During a pre-trial hearing in the city this week, Bella told the court she is pregnant.

Her lawyer said police are seeking to establish where the haul of drugs had come from and whether she was planning to hand them on to someone.

Culley now faces a life sentence in Georgia’s fearsome Prison No. 5.

Here is everything we know about her case so far.

Who is Bella May Culley?

The teenage is from Billingham in County Durham. An aspiring nurse, she recently completed an access course at Middlesbrough College.

Last month, she set out with a pal on a dream holiday to the Philippines before embarking on a solo trip to Thailand on May 3 to meet friends she had made on a previous break.

Photos posted to her social media showed her enjoying typical tourist activities, including snorkelling and kayaking.

But others suggested the trip might have been turning dark.

In one photo, Bella held wads of cash tied up with a silk hairband, captioned: ‘But nothing hurts when I’m with youuuuu’

Another showed Bella in a bikini, with a caption alluding to a Bonnie and Clyde-like scenario.

‘Blonde or brunette? Erm, how about we get up to criminal activities side by side like Bonnie n’ Clyde, making heavy figures and f***ing on balconies all over the world?

‘I don’t care if we on the run baby, long as I’m next to you,’ she said.

Bella May Culley’s disappearance and arrest

She lost contact with her parents a week later, on May 10, with her mum Lynne Kennedy telling Teesside Live: ‘The last message she sent was to me and that was on Saturday at 5.30pm saying she was going to Facetime me later.

‘That was the last message anyone has received from what we can figure out up to now.

‘I’m just waiting on her dad who is now in Bangkok to get back with any more information. I just want her home and safe or to hear her gorgeous little voice.’

Lynne later told The Sun: ‘Her dad lives in Vietnam, so she’s always wanted to see Asia. She loves all the touristy stuff, like releasing turtles.’

She added: ‘I really didn’t want her to go to Thailand. I begged her to come home. I don’t trust some of the boys over there.

‘But she wanted to meet up with some friends she made over there on a previous trip. I don’t know who any of them are.’

Bella resurfaced 4,000 miles away at Georgia’s Tbilisi International Airport, where she was being held following the discovery of 30lbs of cannabis.

It remains unclear why she suddenly veered so far from her holiday destination.

 Her granddad William Culley suggested she may have been taken advantage of by someone else.

Speaking to the Mirror, he said: ‘She’s not daft, she’s an intelligent girl. Why has she done it? Has someone dangled money in front of her?

‘We just don’t know what has gone on until we get out there and talk to her. We are just hoping that somebody can do something. She must be terrified.’

What punishment does she face in Georgia?

The prosecutor in Bella’s case has requested 55 days to gather evidence ahead of a trial.

Her own lawyer, Ia Todua, said: ‘They said that they had to conduct a lot of investigative activities, so that they can collect evidence, establish where it was from [the narcotics] and was she planning to hand it over to someone.

‘That’s what they said they want to establish, and they also confiscated her phone.’

If convicted, she faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment – 20 years in Georgia.

Bella would serve any sentence in the country’s only women’s jail, the notorious Prison No. 5.

The prison has been subject to controversy, with human rights groups criticising the treatment of prisoners housed there.

A report by Georgia’s ombudsman states: ‘When prisoners are received at the No.5 Facility, they are inspected naked and are requested to squat, which the inmates consider degrading treatment.

‘According to inmates, this procedure is especially humiliating and intensive during an inmate’s menstrual cycle.’

A separate report by Human Rights Watch found Georgia’s prisons were ‘severely overcrowded’, threatening the safety of inmates.

The European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment described the conditions at a nearby facility as ‘degrading’, ‘inhuman’ and ‘an affront to a civilised society’.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.