Pop star George Michael moved to softer prison

JAILED pop star George Michael has been transferred to a softer category C prison.

The former Wham! star was moved out of Pentonville Prison after abandoning plans to apply for bail.

The 47-year-old singer, whose real name is Georgios Panayiotou, was jailed on Tuesday for eight weeks after crashing his Range Rover while high on cannabis.

After being sentenced, Michael was taken to Pentonville, where former inmates have included Oscar Wilde and Boy George. But he was moved to Highpoint Prison in Suffolk on Friday.

The centre houses close to 1,000 male convicts. Moors murderer Myra Hindley served the last three years of her life sentence at the prison.

A spokeswoman for the Ministry of Justice said the department did not discuss the movement of prisoners.

Michael was found slumped at the wheel of a car after it smashed into a branch of photo store Snappy Snaps in north London in July.

The singer, who had a previous conviction for the same offence, was told by District Judge John Perkins there was no option but jail.