Biggs awaits release
By Liz Stephens
Convicted robber Ronnie Biggs is preparing to be formally released from prison after being granted freedom by justice secretary Jack Straw.
Mr Biggs – one of the ‘Great Train Robbers’ – has had his release approved by the Ministry of Justice on compassionate grounds.
This comes just weeks after the 79-year-old was refused parole for being “wholly unrepentant”.
Mr Biggs is seriously ill with pneumonia and it is thought he may not recover.
Yesterday Mr Straw said of his decision to release Mr Biggs: “His condition is not expected to improve. It is for that reason that I am granting Mr Biggs compassionate release on medical grounds.”
His son Michael said he was “absolutely delighted”.
Speaking on the Today programme, he said: “In comparison to sentences which are being handed out nowadays it’s pathetic that anyone would expect my father to serve 30 years for taking part in a train robbery.
“The reasons why my father didn’t get parole is, he didn’t show any repentance. My father did show remorse all through the years for having committed a crime.
“However, he has never regretted living the life he did, because had he done that he would never have had me as a son.”
Mr Biggs was serving a 30-year sentence in Norwich Prison, for being a member of a 15-strong gang which attacked the Glasgow to London mail train in August 1963, injuring the driver and stealing £2.6 million in used banknotes.
Mr Biggs originally escaped from Wandsworth prison after only 15 months in jail and spent the next 30 years on the run, living in Australia and Brazil, before returning to the UK voluntarily in 2001 for medical treatment.
The decision means Biggs will spend his 80th birthday on Saturday as a free man, although his condition means he will be unable to celebrate his release.
