Train robber Ronnie Biggs to be freed on medical grounds

[Farin]

• Doctors say his condition is unlikely to improve

• Jack Straw defends decision to refuse parole last month

[smaller]Alan Travis, home affairs editor | guardian.co.uk | Friday 7 August 2009 | Link[/smaller]

This morning, once the paperwork is complete, three prison staff who have been mounting a round-the-clock bedwatch on a sick man close to his 80th birthday will slip away, leaving one of Britain's most notorious villains free.

Their departure from the bedside of the Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs at the Norfolk and Norwich University hospital will bring to a close the last chapter in the history of Britain's most famous robbery, a saga that has spanned four decades and two continents.

The official letter informing Biggs that the justice secretary, Jack Straw, had finally granted his family's application for compassionate release on medical grounds was hand-delivered yesterday to his bedside by a senior governor from Norwich prison. Straw said he had taken the decision as Biggs's condition was not expected to improve.

The train robber, who will turn 80 on Saturday, is suffering from severe pneumonia and is unable to eat, speak or walk. Doctors have said there is "not much hope for him" and he will never fulfil his stated ambition on his return to Britain to "walk into a Margate pub as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter".

Straw, who refused a parole board recommendation to release Biggs on 1 July, said the two decisions involved different considerations.

"I made the decision to refuse parole principally because Mr Biggs had shown no remorse for his crimes nor respect for the punishments given to him and because the parole board found his propensity to breach trust a very significant factor," he said. The parole board had said they believed the risk posed by Biggs was "manageable".

The justice secretary said the decision to release him on compassionate grounds involved considering the medical evidence against well established criteria – especially whether death was likely to occur soon and whether the prisoner was bedridden or severely incapacitated.

"The medical evidence clearly shows that Mr Biggs is very ill and that his condition has deteriorated recently, culminating in his readmission to hospital," said Straw. "His condition is not expected to improve. It is for that reason I am granting Mr Biggs compassionate release on medical grounds."

Biggs will be formally released on licence today from serving the rest of his 30-year sentence, but will remain at Norfolk and Norwich hospital.

Biggs was "over the moon", according to his son, Michael, who said his father communicated by pointing to letters on a spelling board.

"As a family we're absolutely delighted, common sense has prevailed," Michael Biggs said. "My father has fortunately been released on compassionate grounds. I've just been able to spend some time with my father and he in his own words – it took him a long time using a spelling board – but he is over the moon.

"We are very hopeful that my father will be able to survive the next few days."

Biggs has to undergo minor surgery to change a tube in his stomach and put in a clear one.

His legal adviser, Giovanni Di Stefano, said Biggs knew of the decision: "He is being released effectively to die and that cannot be considered a victory … it's a victory for common sense."

He went on: "This man is ill, he's going to die, he is not going to any pub." Di Stefano thanked the justice secretary for his decision.

The family wrote to Straw asking him to end "further procrastination" as the 79-year-old's life hung in the balance. Doctors at Norfolk and Norwich University hospital have said he has "little hope of recovery". They have agreed with his son that Biggs will not be resuscitated if his heart stops. Biggs was transferred from Norwich prison to hospital 10 days ago.

He is fed through a tube and communicates by pointing at letters on a card. In recent years he has suffered strokes.

Dr Helen May, who is responsible for Biggs's care, has said he "remains frail and in poor condition" although he was a "little brighter". In a letter about his condition, she said: "On July 28 Mr Biggs was unresponsive and unable to communicate." He had little hope of recovery because of his frailty and poor nutritional status.

Biggs, from Lambeth, south London, was a member of the 15-strong gang that attacked the Glasgow to London mail train at Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, in August 1963 and made off with £2.6m in used banknotes.

After 15 months in prison he escaped and spent more than 30 years on the run, living in Australia and Brazil before returning to Britian in 2001 for medical treatment. Earlier requests for release on compassionate grounds were refused in 2006 and 2007 and last month.

A total of 48 prisoners who were serving lengthy sentences in prisons in England and Wales have been released on compassionate grounds over the past five years.

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of Napo, the probation union said Straw should have released the train robber in July when it was recommended.

"It's just a great shame he wasn't released two months ago on the recommendation of the parole board," he said. "There have been just 11 occasions in the last five years when parole board decisions involving men serving 15 years or more have been overturned. This year it has happened on just one occasion – that of Ronnie Biggs."