Drone reportedly flown over visitors’ garden where disgraced cardinal’s job was to weed and water

This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

Disgraced Cardinal George Pell has reportedly been moved from his central Melbourne prison to a high security facility in regional Victoria after a drone was flown over the jail.

“Corrections Victoria can confirm an incident involving a drone flying over the Melbourne assessment prison on Thursday,” a justice department spokeswoman said on Sunday.

The drone was reportedly flying near a visitors’ garden at the prison in Melbourne’s CBD.

Pell has been held at the prison for almost a year after his 2018 conviction for sexually assaulting two teenage choirboys at Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral in the mid-1990s.

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He had been given a job weeding and watering a garden inside the prison.

It has been speculated the drone may have been used to get pictures of Pell, which could be worth a significant sum.

He has reportedly been moved to the maximum security Barwon prison, near Geelong, since the incident which has been referred to Victoria police.

It is illegal to fly a drone within 120 metres of a prison or youth justice facility, and doing so can result in up to two years’ jail.