MELBOURNE, Australia — Cardinal George Pell, the highest ranking Catholic clergyman convicted of sexually abusing children, left a courtroom in Melbourne, Australia, on Wednesday flanked by police officers to spend his first night in jail, after a judge heard arguments to determine his sentence for molesting two choirboys in 1996.

Wednesday’s hearing followed months of judicial proceedings that were kept out of the news media by a strict gag order, and which resulted in the cardinal’s conviction on five charges in December.

Hours after the hearing, the Vatican said that it would conduct its own investigation of the cardinal, who had been a top adviser to Pope Francis, and that he no longer held a powerful Vatican post.

Judge Peter Kidd of the County Court of Victoria told a packed courtroom on Wednesday that Cardinal Pell’s “brazen, callous offending” deserved a commensurate punishment, and said he would sentence the cardinal on March 13.