‘I’ll never forgive myself’: Australian grandmother’s final day on the stand in Japanese drug trial

An Australian grandmother at the centre of a Japanese drug trafficking trial has said she will never forgive herself for putting her family through the ordeal.

Donna Nelson, 58, has told her side of the story for the first time, detailing her relationship with an online lover and accusing him of tricking her into smuggling meth.

“My children and grandchildren … they’re the innocent victims in this and I will never be able to forgive myself for the heartache they have endured these 22 months,” she told the court on Friday.

“I was gullible and naive … I hate myself.” Nelson said she was foolish to trust the customs interrogation system and in hindsight, shouldn’t have signed a statement in Japanese she couldn’t read.

Debate then became heated when defence lawyers objected to the prosecutors’ method of questioning. They argued loudly across the room before the judges agreed with the defence.

The prosecutors were told they had asked a misleading question of Nelson, by basing it on her guilt. The cross-examination ended with the grandmother agreeing it was all a mistake she wouldn’t repeat.

The agreement marked the end of the first week of the trial, two days of which Nelson has spent on the stand.

But despite a hard day in court, her three daughters were finally able to visit their mother for the first time in almost two years, allowed a 20-minute visit at Nelson’s prison.

One of her daughters, Shontaye Kickett, said they had tried to sum up the past two years in the short time they had, letting her know how her basketball association was and how her family was faring.

Nelson told them all she hoped to be home soon.

Her other daughter, Janelle Morgan, said when it had been time to leave there had been “a few tears”.

Closing submissions will begin on Tuesday.

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