General Chat

I just found this in our local paper:

Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs was said to be "ecstatic" after learning he will be freed from prison in a year.

Biggs, 78, who is currently in Norwich Prison, was jailed in 2001 after he voluntarily returned to Britain from Rio de Janeiro after 35 years on the run.

He will be released in July 2009 after an agreement was reached about time served by the former fugitive.

Biggs is serving a sentence in Norwich Prison after being transferred from Belmarsh high security jail in south east London.

He was sentenced to 30 years for his role in a 15 strong gang who robbed a Glasgow to London mail train on August 8, 1963 and made off with £2.6m in used banknotes.

His lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano, said: "He is delighted. This has given him the opportunity to spend his last years with his family. I thank the Home Office. Biggs is almost 80 years old. It's time for the old guy to go home."

In recent years Biggs has made several appeals for early release on health grounds. He has had strokes that have left him partially paralysed and MRSA since returning to Britain in 2001.

He was transferred from Belmarsh, South East London, to Norwich jail last year on compassionate grounds.

Mr Di Stefano said his latest appeal was based on Biggs being eligible for release after serving a third of his sentence according to the law in 1963 - the year he was jailed.


Lizx

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About time to ...I think he's served his time twice over especially when you see the sentences they hand down now or in some cases just a smack on the wrist.

I THINK ABOUT TIME TO
HIS PART WAS ONLY A MINOR ROLE IN THE ROBBERY

I agree, and he is unlikely to do anything wrong, being in such a poor state of health. We had Reggie Kray here in Norwich Prison, and he was let out to die, in a local hotel room in 2001.

Lizx

He lived the high live for 35 years most probably on the proceeds of the robbery...so he has only served 7 years.
So how has he served his time??

i agree he should be out
murderers get less i no he escaped
but he was broguht back
he is ill and not a danger to the public
xxx

I CAN THINK OF MORE DANGEROUS PEOPLE
STILL WALKING THE STREETS
HE IS AN OLD SICK MAN
AND ITS COSTING US ALL
A LOT OF MONEY KEEPING HIM IN PRISON

Although I don't really have an opinion on whether he should be released or not, I don't think we should forget the train driver, it wasn't just about stealing money, people actually got hurt in this robbery:

From Wikipedia:

"Although no guns were used, the train driver was hit on the head with an iron bar, causing a black eye and facial bruising....... Mills recovered but had constant trauma headaches the rest of his life. He died in 1970 from leukaemia"

Strange thread this! A villain receiving sympathy.

Who's next on the release list - Ian Brady perhaps?

Probably not. But why pity for one rascal over another?

i totally agree there in a different legue altogether
peados and child murderers should never be released but they are!

About time he was released, if that robbery had happened today, even with the train driver being injuryed like that he would have got about 15 years and he would not have served that.

It is always the 'injured' individual who is expected to pardon the offender. The offender never pardons.

When did Ronnie ever say 'sorry'?

Lynda Ronnie Biggs and his wife lived in Forest Gate where i was born and grew up for a short while before he left her and went to Australia. Annie

Totally agree with you, Joan.
I also think he was given a harsh sentence as an 'example' - well that time has passed.
It's no good police now saying 'We'll be hard on robbers - just look at Biggs' the thieves of today don't know who he is.

I bet poor little Shannon Matthews mother wont go to prison for half that time or baby Ps mother, Which I think Life should MEAN life, thats why we are the laughing stock of the world. Yes the train Robbery was a big thing back in 1963 but has I said before Ronnie Biggs should have been let out a long time ago.

Quite interesting to read about Ron BIggs.

In Melbourne Victoria Aus.( Blackburn ) he lived 5 doors away from me in c.1966. We lived in Hibiscus Rd ( Blackburn ) and also the BIggs family. I was around 18 years of age at the time, and they were just up the road.
When all hell broke loose the "Interpol" sat poised in a car at the top of our street watching the Biggs house. His wife Charmaine would take off in her brown Holden Monaro ( back then ) and they would unplug there electric razors and coffee water jugs from a power lead coming out of someones house and take off after her, probably trying to see if she was in contact with Ron....i assume....but he was long gone?

I did however share a Taxi with him back in 1966-7 coming from Box Hill railway station, to Blackburn ( naturally as he lived just up the road ) but at the time i had no idea he was Great train robber until it was in our our local papers.
The same taxi driver i met up with again a few weeks later remembered myself and Ronald Biggs sharing his Taxi ride home.

Its a small world.

Tony...:>))

Hi Tony, glad I stirred up some old memories for you, what an interesting time you had then lol

In no way am I decrying the injuries suffered by Mr Mills but I feel after this length of time and because of the state of his health, Biggs is no threat to anyone and as others say, is just costing the taxpayer money, altho he probably still will when he gets out depending on his son's circumstances. I am not sure if he is in this country so that he can visit his father or where he is living now.
If you look at any crimes these days, the amount of time even for 'lifers' is laughable, look at those boys who killed Jamie Bulger for just one example,and many recent cases where killers of people of all ages are not likely to spend more than ten to fifteen years in prison. Holding on to Biggs serves no useful purpose and he might as well be set free.

Lizx

Hi Liz. Yes, it did take me back about 40+ odd years ago.

I can still recall sitting up in the back seat next to him in the Taxi.
He did speak to me as its a 20min drive from Box Hil to Blackburn.
I had just fnished work and waiting at the Taxi stand to go home, when he tapped me on the shoulder, and said. Hi young fella....you live in the same street as me......we should share a Taxi together.
If i had known whom he was...i would of asked him to pay the $$$ for the ride home...lol

From memory....it was one of his neighbours that had came suspicious, as he only had a resonable paying job....but his outlay exceeded his income........That was the story i had been told back then.

4th Article down. ( Top left )

http://www.melbourneobserver.com.au/observer35.pdf

Tony ( Melbourne )