A Perth grandmother at the centre of a Japanese drug trafficking trial has told of her ordeal publicly for the first time, detailing her relationship with an online lover and accusing him of tricking her into smuggling meth. The 58-year-old’s handcuffs were removed before she entered the witness box on Thursday, where she told the court she did not know the suitcase she arrived with at Narita Airport in January last year contained methamphetamine. Donna Nelson gives evidence in Japanese court.
Credit: Yoshitaka Enomoto Nelson broke down in tears as she described how she started online dating after her divorce because she was lonely and raising her five children as a single mother. She sparked a relationship with an online lover called “Kelly”, who told her he was a fashion designer who lived in Japan. The pair communicated for three years before making plans to meet in Tokyo.
“At no point did I feel like Kelly was scamming me,” Nelson testified. The Nigerian man flew her business class from Perth to Singapore and then on to Laos. “I felt very happy because he was treating me like the queen,” she said.
He allegedly asked her to collect a suitcase, which he was thinking about selling at his Japanese shop. “The only place I can get that suitcase is in Laos,” Kelly messaged Nelson. Donna Nelson claimed she was tricked into carrying the case into Japan.
“Okay, so what’s the plan? How are you? I miss you.” Messages from Nelson to the man show her asking him .