A BRITISH gang threatened to behead drug mule suspect Bella Culley and her family in a chilling warning to the pregnant 18-year-old.
Bella was shown a horrifying video of an execution by the evil traffickers which forced the teen to send her loved ones a two-word SOS text, her lawyer has claimed.
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The Brit told her legal team that she fell into the clutches of a British-led gang of drug runners while on holiday in Thailand.
She denies knowingly importing drugs worth £200,000 into the former Soviet state of Georgia as she continues to claim she was in fear of life when she flew from Bangkok in May.
Trainee nurse Bella – who got pregnant on her Far East trip – claimed the gang also threatened to harm her parents and 16-year-old brother after claiming they knew where they lived.
In a desperate two word plea she texted her family, “HELP ME”, after being “branded” on the arm with an iron as a warning.
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Bella from Billingham, County Durham, says a bag containing cannabis was checked in under her name by a gang member.
Her frantic family launched a missing person hunt in Thailand after she vanished on holiday but she turned up under arrest 4,000 miles away.
Her Georgian lawyer Malkhaz Salakaia claimed the gang terrorised the teenager into becoming a mule.
She felt queasy and almost fainted but they still forced her to watch it
Malkhaz Salakaia
He told The Sun: “They told her: ‘We know the addresses of your parents, we know where your 16 year old brother is.’
“They made her watch a video of a man being decapitated and told her: ‘If you don’t do as you are told, this is what is going to happen to you and your family.’
“She felt queasy and almost fainted but they still forced her to watch it.”
Bella – who wept in court on Monday as she appeared with her baby bump visible for the first time – has stressed the British father of her child was not a gang member.
And she went on to describe the horror of her “branding” to Mr Salakaia.
He told The Sun: “On the inside of her right arm there is a mark from this coercion.
“She was, so to say, branded – a hot iron was pressed on her arm.
“She was forced to do this – there was both psychological and physical pressure, the trace of which is still visible.
“As to her connection with this group, she knew several of them – they are British.
“At first she knew one, and then through him met the others. However, we have grounds to assume that this group also had local accomplices, including in Thailand.”
Mr Salakaia said by the time Bella managed to send a desperate text to her family, it was too late for them to stop her disastrous journey to Georgia.
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Mr Salakaia said: “Bella sent an SMS to her family asking for help, saying: HELP ME, but by the time the family reacted it was too late
“The instruction, or rather threat, she was given consisted of the following: ‘You will take this luggage and carry it from point A to point B, to this or that country, or we will kill you.
“There is no talk of any potential reward or deal — Bella was simply forced to do this.
“The speculation that one of them is the father of Bella’s child does not correspond to the truth – I categorically deny this. There is no connection.
“I cannot say whether the father of the child knows about Bella’s situation.”
Mr Salakaia told how Bella tried in vain to raise the alarm – but discovered to her horror that Thai cops she tried to tip off were linked to the gang.
He said: “There was a very alarming episode while she was still in Bangkok. Bella seized a moment to go to some policemen – there were three of them, standing on the street.
“She told them: ‘I have a problem, this is happening, there is pressure on me, help me.’
“They spoke with her for 20 minutes and then returned her exactly to the same people she had run away from.
“This allows the simplest conclusion – that this group had things arranged with the local police.”
She was forced to do this – there was both psychological and physical pressure, the trace of which is still visible
Malkhaz Salakaia
Mr Salakaia said Bella did not see the suitcase containing 31lb of cannabis in vacuum-sealed bags until a customs officer in Georgian capital Tbilisi showed it to her.
The teenager had no idea where Tbilisi was and no idea why she was there, he said.
Bella, in a pink t-shirt with her hair in a bun, burst into tears at a court appearance on Monday where she was supported by her father Niel (ckd), 39, aunt Kerrie and grandad William Culley.
Mr Salakaia said Bella – who was refused bail on Monday – will deny drug trafficking charges which carry a minimum sentence of 15 years in jail.
Bella – who says she is happy with conditions at tough No5 Women’s Penitentiary on the outskirts of Tbilisi – is next due in court on July 10.
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