Ronnie Biggs makes move to care home after release from jail term

Aug 17, 2009, 13:48 GMT

London - Britain's 'Great Train Robber' Ronnie Biggs was Monday moved from hospital to a state-funded nursing home, just 10 days after the government granted him compassionate release from his prison term.

Biggs, 80, was moved by ambulance from hospital in Norwich, eastern England, to a care home in Barnet in north London two hours away.

'He is just well enough to be moved and that will be his final home,' his lawyer, Giovanni Di Stefano said.

Biggs would require 24-hour care and be able to draw a state pension of 95.25 pounds (163 dollars) a week, Di Stefano revealed.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw granted Biggs, Britain's most notorious convict, release from his jail term on health grounds on August 6 after earlier having rejected to free him on parole.

A day later, on the occasion of his 80th birthday, Biggs said he hoped to carry on living 'to spite those who want me dead'.

'I've got a bit of living to do yet,' he told journalists from his hospital bed.

Biggs family says the ex-prisoner is 'gravely ill' after several strokes have left him unable to eat, walk or speak without help.

Biggs was a member of a 15-strong gang which attacked the Glasgow to London mail train in August, 1963, which got away with a record haul at the time.

He escaped from jail in London just 15 months after being given a 30-year sentence and fled to France, Spain, Australia and Brazil, from where he returned voluntarily in 2001.