Donna Nelson’s daughters have spoken out about their mother’s imprisonment in Japan. They’ve told Australian Story that their message to their mum is: “We’re going to do whatever we can. We’ll move mountains … don’t give up.”
A 59-year-old Perth mother, grandmother and community leader, Donna was found guilty in December 2024 of smuggling 2kg of methamphetamine into Japan’s Narita airport. She was sentenced to six years in prison.
Donna had fallen victim to a “romance scam” – wooed online, two years earlier, by a man whom she knew as ‘Kelly’, and who led her to believe he was the Nigerian owner of a fashion business in Japan.
‘Kelly’ told Donna that he loved her and intended to marry her. He bought her a first-class ticket to Japan, ostensibly so they could meet, and when she stopped over in Laos, he asked her to collect a suitcase. Donna was told the case contained a fashion sample. However, it had a false bottom which concealed the drugs.
Donna Nelson’s daughters defend their mum
Donna’s daughter, Kristal Hilaire, has told Australian Story about her mother’s reaction when the verdict was handed down in December. “I remember Mum, she just had her head down on the desk and was crying. I said to her, ‘Don’t worry, Mum, we’re going to fight for you to be home’.”
All five daughters (Kristal, 40, Ashlee Charles, 38, Janelle Morgan, 35, Taylor Kickett, 26 and Shontaye Kickett, 21) released a statement saying: “We will never stop fighting for our mum … We will keep fighting until we can bring her home. Family is everything to mum, and she has been apart from us for too long.”
They have been doing just that. Donna has launched a formal appeal, and her daughters are fundraising to pay for legal costs and to fund trips to see their mother. They have also begun their own amateur sleuthing operation to track down ‘Kelly’. Extraordinarily, neither the Japanese nor the Australian police are currently investigating the scammer.
Donna Nelson’s time in prison
Donna has already spent more than two years in jail. This includes the time she served awaiting trial. During that time, she was kept in solitary confinement and was not permitted contact with her daughters. Even now, she spends most of each day in a prison cell, allowed just half an hour for exercise outdoors.
“She’s pretty much confined to her cell for 23½ hours a day,” Ashlee told Australian Story. “She has to eat in her cell, she isn’t allowed to talk loudly, she’s not allowed to sing, she’s not allowed to talk to other people who are detained.”
“She actually told me she felt she is suicidal at a certain point,” her Japanese lawyer, Rie Nishida, added. “She told me she almost forget how to speak.”
All this makes the daughters’ work to have Donna released feel more urgent.
What did Donna Nelson do in Japan?
The Judge and even the prosecutors admitted that Donna Nelson had fallen victim to a sophisticated romance scam. “The defendant committed the crime because she was deceived by Kelly and she had hopes of marriage,” Judge Masakazu Kamakura said.
Her daughters echoed that message. “She thought she was coming to Japan for her love story,” Kristal told the court. “She didn’t have any other intentions other than that. And that’s what we need everyone to know and hear.”
However, Donna was the victim of a very sophisticated scam. She had met ‘Kelly’ on a dating site, and he spent two years wooing her, building trust, speaking to her every day, before he finally suggested they meet.
“If I had known or even suspected illegal drugs were in the suitcase, I would have never agreed to carry it.”
Donna Nelson
Donna was vulnerable to his charms. She was a busy, professional woman who had not been in a long-term relationship since the girls’ father had left almost 20 years earlier. ‘Kelly’ told her he wanted to make her happy, and eventually that he wanted to marry her.
What happened to Donna in Japan?
Finally, he bought Donna a first-class ticket to Japan with a stopover in Laos. When she was about to leave her hotel for the connecting flight to Narita Airport, ‘Kelly’ called and said a business associate was about to drop off a suitcase with some clothing samples. He asked if she could bring it on the plane.
Donna insisted she had no knowledge of the contraband hidden in the suitcase. Furthermore, her lawyers suggested that the fact that she did not speak Japanese and the customs staff spoke poor English may have led to misunderstandings when she was initially questioned at the airport.
“If I had known or even suspected illegal drugs were in the suitcase, I would have never agreed to carry it,” she told the court.
Who is Donna Nelson?
Donna Rose Nelson is a Nyaki Nyaki woman, a mother and grandmother and a respected Aboriginal community leader in Western Australia.
Kristal told the court that her mother was “a good person”. Early in her career, she worked in child protection. “She would quite literally bring her work home with her sometimes,” Ashlee told Australian Story, “and we’d end up having a temporary cousin for a little while.”
Later, Donna was chair of the Derbarl Yerrigan Health Service, a Greens candidate and CEO of the Pioneers Aboriginal Corporation, where she helped disadvantaged young people to find a sense of purpose through sport.
What will happen to Donna now?
Donna’s appeal is currently playing out in the Japanese legal system. It is a long process, and the girls continue to fundraise to pay for legal costs. They are also looking into the possibility of an international prisoner transfer.
If none of this succeeds and Donna serves her full sentence in Japan, she will get out in late 2029.
In Donna’s own words
After the trial, Donna released a statement. “I am extremely disappointed with the trial outcome,” she said. “We presented the facts accurately, truthfully, and the prosecution failed to argue beyond a reasonable doubt their side of the argument. The tears I shed in the courtroom today were not for myself. It was for my daughters, my grandchildren, and my family, who are waiting for me back home; who have been made to grieve all over again. I would like to thank my family, the government of Australia, and my legal team. I will never stop fighting for my freedom and for truth.”
The Australian Story episode, Duped, Donna Nelson, is available to stream on ABC iView.
