Biggs make fresh bid for release
Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs is making a fresh bid to be released from prison on compassionate grounds, his legal team said tonight.
Mr Biggs, 77, last month welcomed being moved to a lower security prison but his lawyers have said the convict wants to spend his remaining years with his family.
The train robber is partially paralysed and can barely speak after suffering several strokes.
He has been transferred from Belmarsh prison in south-east London to a unit at Norwich jail for elderly life-sentenced inmates, even though he is not serving a life sentence.
His son Michael, on a business trip to Brazil, said: “He still cannot speak hardly walk or read or write but the Government still thinks fit to keep him in jail.
“Hopefully they will release him now”
Giovanni Di Stefano, a member of Mr Biggs’ legal team, said in an email sent to Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary and Lord Chancellor: “Our client has fully appreciated this move but we are instructed to state that the said transfer cannot for one moment compensate the need and urgency for our client to spend his remaining period of life with his family for compassionate reasons.”
The train robber has been in the UK since May 2001 after giving himself up to British authorities.
Biggs was part of a gang which ambushed a Glasgow to London night train in August 1963, escaping with £2.6 million cash – a record haul at the time.
He was caught and jailed for 30 years but escaped after 15 months and fled to Australia and later Brazil.
The Home Office has previously refused to allow his release on compassionate grounds
Mr Di Stefano added: “We have also considered the question of the public feeling in the matter.
“We have asked the question as to whether the release of Mr. Biggs would provoke a public outcry and diminish confidence in the criminal justice system.
“The Minister of Justice will know that a number of British and foreign news media have all supported the call for Mr Biggs to be granted compassionate release.
“We can also confirm that we have now nearly 7,000 letters from individuals supporting a petition to HM The Queen for the prerogative of pardon to be issued.”
