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Great Train Robber Biggs released on “compassionate grounds”

Biggs, who turns 80 this weekend, is severely ill in hospital with pneumonia

Britain’s Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs was granted on Thursday release from his prison sentence on compassionate grounds. Justice Secretary Jack Straw said the decision was based on medical evidence that Biggs's condition had deteriorated and he was not expected to recover.

Biggs, who turns 80 this weekend, is severely ill in hospital with pneumonia and doctors have said there is “not much hope”.

Judy Totton, a spokeswoman for Michael Biggs, said: “He is absolutely delighted and he hopes that his father will survive long enough to see his 80th birthday on Saturday.”

Last month, the Justice Secretary rejected Biggs's application for parole on the grounds that the robber was “wholly unrepentant” about his crimes.

But the decision on compassionate release was based on “different considerations”, Mr Straw said. “The medical evidence clearly shows that Mr Biggs is very ill and that his condition has deteriorated recently, culminating in his re-admission to hospital. His condition is not expected to improve,” he said.

“It is for that reason that I am granting Mr Biggs compassionate release on medical grounds. I have therefore been satisfied that the relevant conditions have been met, which I was not in respect of the recommendation for parole.”

Biggs was rushed to the Norwich and Norfolk Hospital from his cell at Norwich prison on Tuesday. He will remain on bed watch overnight and the three Prison Service staff watching him will be withdrawn on Friday, once the licence for his release is finalised. His condition means he will be unable to celebrate his release. After a series of strokes, he is bedridden, fed through a tube and barely able to communicate.

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

He was given a 30-year sentence but after 15 months he escaped from Wandsworth prison in south west London by climbing a 30ft wall and fleeing in a furniture van.

Biggs was on the run for more than 30 years, living in Australia and Brazil before returning to the UK voluntarily in 2001 in search of medical treatment. The decision means he can celebrate his birthday on Saturday a free man. It will be 46 years to the day since the robbery.