Donna Nelson's Family Ecstatic She Is Home After Prison Transfer from Japan

Donna Nelson, a 60-year-old grandmother, has returned to Perth after being transferred from a Japanese prison to Bandyup Women's Prison in Western Australia. Her family, who had been eagerly waiting for her return, were overjoyed to see her.

Nelson was convicted of drug smuggling after being duped in a love scam into carrying almost 2 kilograms of methamphetamine. She was arrested in January 2023 at Narita International Airport and sentenced to six years in jail, three of which she has already served.

Her daughters, Kristal Hilaire and Ashlee Charles, say they were told at the last minute about the prison transfer deal that brought their mother home. They expressed their gratitude to the authorities for bringing her back, saying it has "lifted a weight" out of their lives.

"She's so happy, she's ecstatic. She's so happy to be able to have a cappuccino again," Ashlee Charles said of her mum. "She's missed her cappuccinos. She was a regular cappuccino drinker… and she never had one all this time (in Japan)."

Ms Charles added that her mother also enjoyed a lot of time with family and met her youngest grandchild for the first time. "She hasn't had a hug this whole time," Ms Charles said. "She got at least 10 hugs yesterday. She got so many hugs. We tried to make up as much as we could."

Kristal Hilaire, who had visited her mother in Japan, said the process of bringing her home had been stressful. "It's been very secretive and we've had to put a lot of trust in our government and the Japanese government," she said. "That's been hard."

The family said they only found out when their mother would return at the last minute, and could not stop crying with relief once she contacted them from Perth. "It's like a weight was lifted that you'd forgotten was there, because it became normal to be wearing that weight and today you wake up and you're feeling renewed," Ms Hilaire said.

Ms Charles said she was looking forward to having her phone "blow up again" with calls from her mother, who used to call her daughters at least once a day but was unable to contact them on any regular basis from jail in Japan. "It's weird to think that we are breathing the same air as her now and we literally can just drive past where she is," she said.

Nelson's family are uncertain about the future, but hopeful she could be up for parole in February. For now, they are just grateful to the authorities for bringing her home. "We can't thank them enough, they've made our family whole again," Ms Charles said.