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.
“They all cook for each other,” Ms Kennedy says. “Bella has been making eggy bread and cheese toasties, and salt and pepper chicken.”
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.
