Vicky Pryce moved to open prison

By ALLAN MACKIE
Published on 18/03/2013 01:32

FORMER Cabinet minister Chris Huhne’s ex-wife has been moved to a “pleasant” open jail after spending only four nights in Holloway prison, according to reports.

Vicky Pryce, 60, was jailed for eight months last Monday after a jury found her guilty of perverting the course of justice for taking speeding points for Huhne in 2003.

On Friday, the mother-of-five was transferred from notorious Holloway prison in north London to East Sutton Park prison in Maidstone, Kent, it was reported.

The category D jail is described on the Ministry of Justice’s website as “a pleasant mansion house overlooking the Weald of Kent”.

“It holds both adult and young offender women in open conditions preparing them for resettlement in the community,” the website adds.

East Sutton Park’s regime includes “provision of farms, gardens, catering and training courses, physical education”.

A Ministry of Justice spokesman said: “We do not comment on individual prisoners or where they are held.”

Economist Pryce was convicted following a retrial at Southwark Crown Court after a jury disagreed with her defence of marital coercion.

Huhne, 58, pleaded guilty on the first day of his trial last month after denying perverting the course of justice for nearly two years.

Jailing the pair, Mr Justice Sweeney said Huhne had fallen from a “great height” and Pryce from a “considerable height”.