“It doesn’t look like Perth. The airport’s different - it’s a different place.”
These were some of Donna Nelson’s first words to her daughters after touching down in WA last night, almost four years after she left on the trip of a lifetime to Japan.
The former federal Greens candidate fell victim to a Nigerian love scammer - a man she knew as “Kelly” and planned to marry after meeting through an online dating site.
But the grandmother never got to set eyes on him.
In January 2023, Nelson was arrested at Narita Airport, near Tokyo, with almost two kilograms of methamphetamine hidden in her suitcase.
It was luggage she had been requested to bring into Japan by her fiancé.
The drugs had been concealed in a false bottom of the suitcase before it was delivered to Nelson during a layover in Laos.
She then became an unwitting drug mule, transporting the stimulant into Japan.
In December 2024, the mother of five was convicted in the Chiba District Court and sentenced to six years’ jail.
Her bid to overturn the conviction failed in September 2024 when the Tokyo High Court found she had cast aside her worry and doubt and complied with her lover’s request to bring the suitcase into Japan for his fashion design business.
Following her appeal loss, her family turned their attention to securing a prisoner transfer that required the support and cooperation of the Australian Government.
Nelson was secretly driven from Japan’s largest women’s prison in Tochigi early yesterday morning before boarding a flight back to Perth.
Her family learnt about the outcome in a phone call after she was collected by a Department of Justice officer.
She has been taken to a Perth prison where she will serve out her sentence.
Daughter Ashlee Charles said the family is so happy to finally have her home.
“We appreciate the support from the Australian Government, the Japanese Government and friends, family and the wider community throughout this whole ordeal,” she said.
In December 2024, Nelson was sentenced and received a $10,000 fine for drug trafficking charges, but 430 days were deducted from her sentence for time already served.
At the time of her conviction, Nelson’s lawyer Rie Nishida said the verdict was unreasonable and they would fight until she got her freedom.
However, in October last year, her daughter Ashlee Charles said the family felt the best option was to pursue an international transfer back to Australia to serve her sentence after she declined to appeal the sentence.
While finding her guilty on the drug trafficking charges in 2024, the Japanese judge did concede she had been taken advantage of.
In her testimony to the Chiba District Court in 2024, Nelson broke down as she described how she had started online dating after her divorce and she sparked a relationship with Kelly.
The pair communicated for more than two 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, where he allegedly asked her to collect the suitcase.
But when she arrived in Laos, there was no booking for her at the hotel. The man suggested she pay for a room at the Crown Plaza. Nelson sent a message saying she was thinking about going home and was worried.
“Please wait. The guy is at work. He will come with $1500 as soon as he finishes,” a message to her read.
The court heard Nelson only received the suitcase from Kelly’s “business manager” 15 minutes before checking out to fly to Japan.
There were clothing samples inside, but she didn’t notice anything strange about the case and placed her belongings in it before heading for her flight to Tokyo.