{"id":246397,"date":"2025-07-07T22:41:11","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T22:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/246397\/"},"modified":"2025-07-07T22:41:11","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T22:41:11","slug":"new-cctv-emerges-as-thai-police-rubbish-bella-culleys-drug-torture-claims-news-uk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/246397\/","title":{"rendered":"New CCTV emerges as Thai police rubbish Bella Culley’s drug torture claims | News UK"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Thai
\n\t\tThai police rubbished a British teenager\u2019s claims that she was forced to smuggle drugs out of Thailand
(Credits: Asia Pacific Press via ViralPres)<\/p>\n

A Thai police chief has disputed Bella May Culley\u2019s defence that she was tortured into smuggling drugs as he presented CCTV of her \u2018calmly\u2019 walking through passport control by herself.<\/a><\/p>\n

Bella Culley, 19, from Billingham,\u00a0County Durham<\/a>, faces life in Georgian prison after being arrested at Tbilisi International Airport on May 10 for allegedly smuggling a large amount of illegal drugs in her suitcase from Thailand.<\/p>\n

Her lawyer, Mr Malkhaz Salakaia, said Bella, from Billingham,\u00a0County Durham<\/a>, had been threatened with a hot iron to force her into trafficking 12kg of marijuana and 2kg of hashish.<\/p>\n

But Lieutenant General Choengron Rimpadee said that \u2018there is absolutely no factual basis to her claims\u2019 while presenting airport CCTV footage showing Bella walking through passport control at Suvarnabhumi Airport.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"Two
\n\t\tBella Culley was arrested for allegedly smuggling illegal drugs into Georgia (Picture: EAST2WEST \/ FACEBOOK)<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tSign up for all of the latest stories\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Start your day informed with Metro’s News Updates<\/a><\/strong> newsletter or get Breaking News<\/a> <\/strong>alerts the moment it happens. <\/p>\n

He added: \u2018There is no evidence whatsoever that any immigration or police officers forced or threatened the suspect to smuggle drugs out of the country.\u2019<\/p>\n

It came after the teenager broke down in tears at Tbilisi City Court, as she pleaded not guilty to charges of possession and trafficking illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

\t\t\"DRUGS
\n\t\tBritish woman Bella May Culley,19, has been detained at Tbilisi airport in Georgia on suspicion of carrying 14kg of cannabis(Credits: Prime time\/east2west news)<\/p>\n

Bella, who is 18 weeks pregnant, showed her scarred wrist to the court, telling the judge: \u2018I did not want to do this. I was forced to do this through torture.<\/p>\n

\u2018I just wanted to travel. I am a good person. I am a student at university. I am a clean person. I don\u2019t do drugs.\u2019<\/p>\n

Mr Salakia said the teenager was not aware of what was in her luggage and she had allegedly tried to approach a policeman for help but he was part of the criminal group too.<\/p>\n

He said: \u2018She was instructed to fly to Georgia \u2013 she did not even know where Georgia was located geographically.\u2019<\/p>\n

He claimed his client was told she would be met by people in Tbilisi airport but she was instead intercepted by a customs officer.<\/p>\n

Culley was detained for 52 days while prosecutors investigated the origins of 12kg of marijuana and 2kg of hashish found in her travel bag. <\/p>\n

Judge Lela Kalichenko has denied her bail, with the next hearing scheduled for July 10.<\/p>\n

Arrow
\nMORE: Boy, 8, found being raised by dogs and can only communicate by barking<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrow
\nMORE: NHS opens first ketamine clinic for children as young as 12<\/a><\/p>\n

Arrow
\nMORE: British man reported missing in Cambodia found in jail accused of drug smuggling<\/a><\/p>\n

\t\t\t\tNews Updates<\/p>\n

Stay on top of the headlines with daily email updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thai police rubbished a British teenager\u2019s claims that she was forced to smuggle drugs out of Thailand(Credits: Asia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":246398,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[535,2307,12,731,16,26],"class_list":{"0":"post-246397","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-drugs","9":"tag-georgia","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-thailand","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114814365759172680","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}