On Wednesday, the Chiba District Court sentenced a 58-year-old Australian grandmother to six years in prison for smuggling 2 kilograms of methamphetamine into Japan. Donna Nelson, from Perth, claimed she had been the victim of an online love scam. She told the court that she didn’t know the drugs were hidden in the suitcase. According to her testimony, a Nigerian man, known only as “Kelly,” who she says she was considering marrying, asked her to pick up the suitcase in Laos and bring it to Japan where he was due to meet her. He never turned up. She thought she was picking up clothing samples for his fashion business.
Judge Accepts Love Scam Claim
Presiding Judge Masakazu Kamakura accepted Nelson’s claim that she was tricked as part of an online love scam. However, he felt that she should have been aware that something was wrong with the arrangement and that there was a possibility that something illegal could have been hidden in the suitcase. He had a degree of “sympathy” for the defendant and subsequently imposed a shorter sentence than would be typical for the amount of methamphetamine she was smuggling. Prosecutors had been calling for a 10-year prison sentence and a fine of ¥3 million. Nelson has already been in custody for just under two years. The court said 430 days of that will be counted toward her sentence.
The ‘Victim of a Crime and Not a Criminal,’ Claims Daughter
“We are disappointed and devastated by the court’s verdict in our mum’s case,” Kristal Hilaire, one of Nelson’s daughters, told reporters outside the court. “We maintain that our mum was the victim of a romance scam. She is the victim of a crime and not a criminal. She has always been against drugs.” Nelson’s lawyer, Rie Nishida, described the verdict as unjust, stating that they would appeal and “fight until the end.”
Nelson, who, prior to her arrest, was the chair of the Aboriginal-run Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service, used to be married to a police officer. She began an online relationship with the man referred to as Kelly in 2020, but they never met in person.
