A court in Japan has found Australian grandmother Donna Nelson guilty of importing two kilograms of methamphetamine last year. She's been sentenced to six years jail minus time already served.
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00:00This will be absolutely devastating news for the family of Donna Nelson.
00:06Her daughter, Crystal Hilaire, who stayed in Japan throughout the trial, spoke to the
00:11media on the way in before the verdict was delivered.
00:13They were confident that the judge would see that she was the innocent victim of a love
00:19scam and certainly her lawyers had expressed that confidence as well.
00:23But ultimately what the judge has ruled is that there were too many doubts that Donna
00:29Nelson should have picked up on about this whole love interest that she'd developed and
00:33the idea of picking up a bag for an essential stranger.
00:37There were too many doubts that she overlooked and therefore she was guilty of this crime.
00:43The judge has sentenced her to six years jail.
00:46Now 430 days has already been served so that will be taken off the sentence there and she's
00:51been fined $10,000.
00:53So just to backtrack about how we got here, Donna Nelson had sparked up an online romance
00:58with a man named Kelly and she hadn't met this man but the two interacted for two years
01:03via text messaging, through video chats as well.
01:06They had tried to meet up on multiple occasions but eventually Kelly bought her tickets to
01:10Japan but with a three day stopover in Laos.
01:14When she was there she picked up a bag and hidden in that bag were the two kilograms
01:19of methamphetamine that she took to Japan.
01:22Now she had long argued that she was tricked into taking this bag, believing it was a suitcase
01:27that he needed for his fashion business but as I mentioned from the judge's perspective,
01:33just too many red flags.
01:34She should have had doubts that the story that Kelly was telling her simply did not
01:39add up.
01:40For example, when she meets an associate of Kelly in Laos, why didn't the associate take
01:46the bag to Japan?
01:47When she receives the bag it's a very ordinary looking bag, it doesn't look special and when
01:51she arrives in Japan it was broken.
01:54We also know for instance from the prosecution that she filled out her arrival card incorrectly
01:58saying she wasn't taking anyone else's bags or suitcases, that everything was her own.
02:04So the prosecution long argued that she was not a reliable witness.
02:08Fundamentally that's what has caught her here.
02:10It's not necessarily that they've definitely proven that she intended to take the drugs.
02:15In fact, the court here acknowledged she was a victim of Kelly as well but there were just
02:20too many warning signals that she overlooked and she must have had doubts.
02:24That's what the court is saying.
02:25She must have known something was potentially wrong and illegal with that suitcase she picked
02:30up.
02:31And James, under the Japanese system is there any likelihood she'll get parole before the
02:36six years and what happens next?
02:42What happens next is that the lawyers have said that they will fight, they will definitely
02:46fight this and they said that right from the start, that regardless of today's outcome
02:50if she was found guilty that they thought she was an innocent person and they would
02:54continue to fight.
02:56We've also just heard from, there's a statement from the family of Donna Nelson saying they
03:01are disappointed and devastated by the court's verdict and that they maintain that their
03:07mum was the victim of a romance scam.
03:11So there's no chance of early parole that we heard of in the court case just before.
03:16But as I mentioned, she has already served 430 days so it is more like four years from
03:20today rather than the full six years.
03:22The Australian Embassy did speak to the media briefly saying they're providing consular
03:27assistance to Ms Nelson and the family.
03:29So now we've just got to hear about when this appeal will actually be filed.