Teen Mom in Georgian Prison: A Journey of Survival

Mon Nov 03 2025 03:00:02 GMT+0200 (Eastern European Standard Time)

18-year-old Bella Culley faces imprisonment in Georgia while awaiting her baby, enduring harsh conditions before being moved to a better facility, where she can finally cook and care for herself.

Bella Culley, a 19-year-old British teenager, is currently imprisoned in Georgia after being charged with drug smuggling. Now eight months pregnant, her mother discusses Bella's life behind bars, including the challenges she has faced and the improvements seen after being transferred to a 'mother and baby' unit. Bella's family managed to raise £137,000 to reduce her sentence, which had initially been much longer. As they await her next court date, Bella continues to strive for a hopeful future for her and her unborn child.

A British teenager - eight months pregnant and charged with drug smuggling - is awaiting sentencing in prison in Georgia, South Caucasus. A payment of £137,000 by her family will reduce her sentence but what are the days like for Bella Culley, incarcerated 2,600 miles (4,180km) from home?

Speaking exclusively to the BBC, Bella Culley's mother reveals her daughter - now 35 weeks pregnant - has been transferred to a prison 'mother and baby' unit. This marks a significant change for the 19-year-old after five months in a cell in Georgia's Rustavi Prison Number Five, with only a hole in the ground for a toilet, one hour of fresh air daily, and communal showers twice a week.

Lyanne Kennedy says her daughter has been boiling pasta in a kettle and toasting bread over a candle flame but is now allowed to cook for herself and other women and children in the unit, and is learning Georgian. She now gets two hours out for walking, she can use the communal kitchen, has a shower in her room and a proper toilet, she says, describing the improved conditions since a transfer earlier this month.

Miss Culley has been held in pre-trial detention since May, after police discovered 12kg (26lb) of marijuana and 2kg (4.4lb) of hashish in her hold luggage at Tbilisi International Airport. In September, Georgian media widely published an open letter from Anastasia Zinovkina, a Russian political activist, describing the sanitary conditions in prison as appalling and horrific. However, the Georgian Ministry of Justice states that conditions have significantly improved since earlier monitoring reports.

Miss Culley's lawyer asserted she had been tortured and coerced by gangsters to carry the drugs. Back in Tbilisi City Court last Tuesday, the teenager learned her family had raised £137,000, enough to reduce her sentence to two years. As her next court date approaches, her family hopes to bring her home, where she belongs.

Ms Kennedy expresses her determination for her daughter to return home soon as they await Bella's final sentencing. We are just a family doing everything we can for my daughter and grandson, she adds, emphasizing the support and love surrounding Bella during this challenging time.