DRUG charge teenager Bella Culley is being held in the same jail as an evil hammer killer maniac dubbed “Georgia’s most dangerous woman,” It was revealed yesterday.
British backpacker Bella, 18, is in custody following her arrest in Georgia’s Tbilisi airport with a suitcase of cannabis after going missing 4,000 miles away in Thailand.
She faces at least nine months on remand in a grim Soviet-era jail alongside hardened criminals including notorious Magda Papidze - the only woman in the country serving a life sentence.
Calculating killer Papidze got pregnant by her lover then planned to start a new life by killing her husband Omar Kaphiashvili and their five-year-old son Tornike.
She was seen on CCTV shopping for a sledgehammer with the lad - which she later used to bludgeon sleeping Omar to death before throttling her tragic son.
Omar’s battered body was found outside their apartment and Tonike’s lifeless body was found inside a nearby car.
Forensic checks found the couple’s home had been cleaned to remove huge bloodstains and suspicion fell on flame-haired Papidze, now 35, who denied murder.
She was convicted in 2016 after police found her diary revealing her affair and details of her murder plan.
Bella now faces a sentence of 15 years to life inside high security Women’s Penitentiary No5 on the outskirts of Georgian capital Tbilisi where Papidze will spend the rest of her life.
Her family, from Billingham, County Durham believe the impressionable teen she was led astray by men she met in the Far East who gave her the 31lb cannabis and hashish stash.
She is believed to have been grabbed on arrival at Tbilisi’s international airport with the cargo with a street value of £200,000 in her hold bag following a tip-off.
Dangerous Papidze is currently banned from associating with other inmates but has previously been allowed to tend the jail’s raspberry garden and wants more association with inmates.
And she is among scores of potentially dangerous inmates who could end up rubbing shoulders with vulnerable Bella if she lands a lengthy sentence.
Bubbly Bella has confided since her arrest that she was “in love” with a mystery man suspected of getting her pregnant before hooking her up with drug traffickers in the Far East.
Her family - and police - are desperately trying to trace the man called “Russ or Ross.”
The Sun revealed she could be forced to bring up her love child behind bars in the prison’s nursery and kindergarten units.
Papidze - who aborted her baby after her arrest - launched an appeal to be moved to a jail with a less severe regime last year but the move was quickly quashed.
She was the only woman in Georgian legal history to be found unanimously guilty by all 12 jurors after denying murder - and the verdict was reached in a record two hours.
Describing her current jail conditions, her then lawyer, Eka Kobesashvili, said while making the appeal: “She lives in a small cell where she spends 23 hours a day.
“She gets one hour of so-called ‘air time’ - which in reality means another small concrete cell, only with bars instead of a roof. From there she can see the sky and breathe, but nothing else.
“She has various health conditions — endocrine issues, diabetes, and she went into menopause shortly after her arrest.
“These problems are directly linked to the conditions she’s lived under for years now.
“She’s spent years under this strict regime. Not once in that time has she received a reprimand.
“Not once has she violated any rule. Her conduct has been exemplary. Based on that alone, we believe she deserves some form of leniency.
“We believe she should be granted more space to move, to breathe, to engage in physical activity — otherwise her health risks deteriorating further.”
Papidze begged authorities to be allowed to study, work and interact with other inmates - which could lead to her rubbing shoulders with Bella in future.
She has previously been granted short-term three-month contracts in which she is allowed to work and mix with other prisoners, including a stint in the prison’s raspberry garden.
The hammer killer continues to profess her innocence insisting she has been framed and condemned to die in jail hell.
Vowing to fight for her freedom, she said: “You can throw a person in prison, but you shouldn’t take away their right to fight.
“You can detain them physically, but just because you can’t imprison their mind…all they seem to care about is quietly pressuring me within four walls until they push me toward a fatal end."
A legal source in Georgia said: “Papidze is widely regarded as the most evil woman in Georgia and belongs behind bars in Women’s Penitentiary.
“At the moment she is not allowed to associate with other prisoners and is only allowed to see daylight for one hour a day.
“But that may change in future if she is allowed to associate with other inmates - who may include Bella if she is given the expected lengthy sentence.”
Bella’s Vietnam-based oil rig electrician father Niel, 49, and her aunt Kerrie Culley have flown to Tbilisi but were still being blocked from visiting her by jail red tape yesterday.
He remains in the dark as to how his daughter came to have the drugs and has declined to comment.
