Why George Pell was moved from Melbourne Assessment Prison to Barwon prison
Disgraced cardinal George Pell was hurriedly shifted to the high-security Barwon Prison this month after a drone spotted flying close to the CBD jail prompted security fears. But this is what it was really doing.
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Police investigating a drone which was spotted hovering metres from George Pell have concluded it was not spying on him.
A Victoria Police probe found the drone was being flown as part of an unrelated “commercial operation”.
Two men were interviewed by police and referred to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority.
The Catholic cardinal was moved from Melbourne Assessment Prison after a drone was spotted hovering near a visitors’ garden frequented by Pell on January 9.
The security breach landed him at Barwon Prison, with the state’s most dangerous criminals.
It is understood he will remain there for some time even though he was found not to have been a spy target.
A prison source told the Herald Sun: “There are no plans to move him back”.
A Department of Justice spokesman said prisons conduct “rigorous security and risk assessments to ensure the safe and secure placement of all prisoners”.
In 2018, the state government brought in a maximum penalty of two years behind bars for anyone caught with a drone within 120m of a jail or youth justice centre.
The Civil Aviation Safety Authority is assessing whether it will investigate the men involved in the prison threat.
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Those in breach of the rules can be hit with fines of up to $10,500, a spokesman said.
Pell has spent almost a year in custody in Melbourne on child sex offences.
He is serving a maximum sentence of six years for abusing two choirboys in the 1990s, while he was Archbishop of Melbourne.
Pell will have a final chance to overturn the convictions at the High Court of Australia later this year.