UK - Great train robber to be released

[John Ashworth]

Great train robber Ronnie Biggs set to be released in July

Robert Booth
The Guardian, Wednesday 18 February 2009

Great train robber Ronnie Biggs may walk free this summer, it emerged last night. A parole board meeting on 3 July will decide if he can be released from Norwich jail after nine and a half years in custody in the UK and more than 35 years on the run in Australia and Brazil since the £2.3m raid on the Glasgow to London mail train.

His family has received visits from probation officers and parole officers to discuss the possibility of life for Biggs outside prison, his son Michael told ITV News.

"We had several discussions on what life on the outside would be like for my father and what local impact it would have on the community, and, of course, what kind of impact it would have on him and his health," he said.

Biggs, who will be 80 in August, is frail and was returned to Norwich prison this week after receiving three days of hospital treatment for pneumonia. He is said to be unable to speak properly or walk after a series of strokes.

One man died in the 1963 robbery and Biggs was sentenced to 30 years but escaped from Wandsworth prison after 15 months by scaling the wall.

His solicitors argue that he is eligible for parole because he has served a third of his sentence. Biggs supporters had hoped he would be released this month, but now expect the July parole meeting to result in his freedom.

"All my father can do at the moment is sit down and watch television," his son said. "I think the public will be appalled to see what state my father is in once he gets released from prison. Perhaps the government was not hoping that he would last this long, but he has, and now that he has done his time they have to let him out."

Biggs has previously issued appeals to be released before he dies and in 2007 said: "I am an old man and often wonder if I truly deserve the extent of my punishment. I have accepted it and only want freedom to die with my family and not in jail."

Many of Biggs's fellow train robbers are already dead: Charlie Wilson was murdered, Buster Edwards killed himself and others died of natural causes. Bruce Reynolds, who orchestrated the robbery, has written a number of books on the case.

Biggs returned voluntarily to the UK from hiding in Brazil in 2001 because of ill-health.

Michael Biggs, who was born in Brazil, moved to London at the time of his father's return, became a British citizen and now works as a football agent, bringing young Brazilian players to Britain.