Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor and one-time spin doctor to British Prime Minister David Cameron, has been moved from a high security to an open prison, nine weeks after he was found guilty of phone hacking.
Coulson was assessed as low-risk to society and moved from Belmarsh, which houses some of Britain's most hardened criminals in south-east London.
The 'Guardian' reported that his new base, however, is not his preferred option of an open prison in Kent, where he would have been near his family.
The transfer on Tuesday comes weeks after his former cellmate and colleague Neville Thurlbeck, also convicted of hacking offences, revealed that Coulson was not even legible for transfer because he had not been categorised by the prison.
It was expected that Coulson would have been assessed as a category D low-risk prisoner soon after he was convicted on July 4. But instead he was locked up for between 22 and 24 hours a day.
Coulson was jailed for 18 months seven weeks ago for participating in a phone hacking conspiracy at media mogul Rupert Murdoch's erstwhile Sunday tabloid.
All those jailed at the old Bailey court in London are sent to Belmarsh as part of the prison service routine.
There has been some suggestion that Coulson was being kept at Belmarsh because of the potential for a retrial on one the charges he faced during the hacking trial.
However, the judge, Mr Justice Saunders, wrote to the prison governor to express concern that he was still at Belmarsh pointing out that there was no immediate prospect of a trial.
A spokesperson for the Prisoner Reform Trust (PRT) said transfer to an open prison doesn't always immediately follow categorisation because open prisons were so full.
Those held in open prisons have relatively far more freedom of movement as they are not locked up in cells and are even permitted to take up employment while serving their sentence.
