Ronnie Biggs to stay behind bars, British government rules (Roundup)

Jul 1, 2009, 16:09 GMT

   London - Britain's Great Train Robber, Ronnie Biggs, who is ailing and 79 years old, will have to stay behind bars because he has been 'wholly unrepentant' over the 1963 raid and his 36 years on the run, the British government ruled Wednesday.

   Justice Secretary Jack Straw refused parole despite a recommendation by the prison parole board that Biggs, who is seriously ill, should be transferred to a care home on July 3, the earliest possible date for his release.

   The ailing prisoner, who has suffered multiple strokes, cannot walk on his own and is fed through a tube, was taken to hospital with a hip fracture in the eastern city of Norwich Sunday, where he had also been in jail.

   Biggs surrendered to British police in 2001, returning from Brazil after 36 years on the run. Straw, who was Home Secretary at the time of Biggs' return to Britain, said then that the Great Train Robber was unlikely ever to be freed.

   As Justice Secretary, Straw had the last word on the parole board recommendation.

   Biggs' legal adviser, Giovanni Di Stefano, said Wednesday that his client was 'seriously ill' and would have to stay in hospital 'for the next two to six weeks.'

   There had been a sudden 'turn for the worse' in Biggs' condition Wednesday and his son, Michael, had dashed to the hospital 'on an emergency basis,' said Di Stefano.

   Biggs gained notoriety for his role in the audacious 1963 raid on a Glasgow to London overnight mail train in which a 15-strong gang got away with a cash haul of 2.6 million pounds - a record at the time.

   He escaped from London's Wandsworth jail 15 months after his conviction and sentencing, and hid in France, Spain, Australia and Brazil, giving Scotland Yard detectives the slip for more than three decades.

   Straw said Biggs would have been a free man 'many years ago' if he had complied with the sentence given to him.

   But Biggs had chosen to serve only one year of a 30-year sentence before he took 'the personal decision to commit another offence and escape from prison, avoiding capture by travelling abroad for 35 years whilst outrageously courting the media,' said Straw.

   'Biggs chose not to obey the law and respect the punishments given to him - the legal system in this country deserves more respect than this,' the statement added.

   It had been Biggs' own choice to offend and he now appeared to to want to avoid the consequences of his decision. 'I do not think this is acceptable,' said Straw.

   His ministry had earlier denied media reports which said the prisoner would be freed. His son Michael said he was 'excited' by the prospect of freedom for his father, whom he hoped would be able to spend his 80th birthday next month with the family.