General Chat

Not sure why Tony, but every time I copy and paste that link and then click on it is whips back to this thread!

Gaille, I think I can understand that, sometimes I think someone like him should be handed to the local people after a crime instead of being kept for life in a comfy cell with all advantages. I am sure he would have told of the location if he had been faced with a room full of angry parents.

Lizx

Hi Liz. Strange!!!...it works for me.

Try a "Google"

Melbourne observer+Ronald Biggs+Blackburn ( No spacing )


Cheers. Tony...:>))

Got there that time Tony, wasn't exactly a low profile job he was doing, working in a tv studio?


Looked further down, loved the cartoon of the dog and the fox lol

Lizx

OK. So, let him out of jail. What then?

He is old & feeble. Where would he go - a nursing home perhaps at Government cost no doubt. No financial savings using that idea then.

Still, there is always the possibility of him appearing on the new Jonathan Ross programme instead of Russell Brand. I'm sure Ron would regail the viewers with numerous tales of his mis-spent youth. Jonathan & the BBC would surely put a fee his way.

I put this on another thread on chat that is quite similar:

Lets not forget that they were criminals, not loveable rogues. (I've seen several people refer to him in this term or something similar) Tell that to the family of the injured train driver who got hurt for purely doing his job. . Fortunately he didn't die....he could have easily done though. Unfortunately he had to live with the consequences and couldn't return to work.

So it may not have been Ronnie who injured him, but did he tell the police who was responsible? In fact I'm sure there were a number of people who knew of these criminals but didn't tell.

It's dishonest people like Ronnie who necessitate us needing more police, it is these 'loveable rogues' who drive up our insurance policies (we are paying for crime every day whether it be to recoup the money that was stolen or pay for security to guard it). Most of us have to pay our hard earned cash to pay for their crimes. Some people pay with their lives,

I just had to say something. I hope I haven't offended anyone by my opinion. However, rather than putting ourselves in the shoes of the criminal and his family, I felt we needed to see things from the victim's point of view.

The debate whether he should be released yet or not is a separate issue. I don't think I know enough about the law or similar cases to make an informed opinion. I don't know either whether he feels sorry/guilty or not. It may be that he has served sufficient time under the law to be released now from his sentence.

The first duty of our society is justice. Retrospective justice does not work - anyone who was executed would gladly tell you that, if they could.

n

latest news: Ronnie Biggs applies for parole

DAVID BALE
19 April 2009 09:32



Great Train robber Ronnie Biggs is applying for parole next week in the hope he can be released before his 80th birthday, his son has said.

Biggs, from Lambeth, London, is currently being held at Norwich Prison but a Parole Board meeting on Thursday will consider his release.

He was a member of the 15-strong gang which attacked a mail train at Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, on 8 August 1963.

The heist became known as the Great Train Robbery.

They made off with £2.6m - a record haul at the time - but were captured shortly afterwards.

After being given a 30-year sentence, Biggs escaped from Wandsworth Prison, south London, in a furniture van after spending 15 months in jail.

He was on the run for more than 30 years, living in Spain, Australia and Brazil, before returning to the UK voluntarily in 2001.

His son, Michael, 34, said he was "hopeful" that his father would be freed on July 3 - in time to celebrate his 80th birthday on August 8, exactly 46 years on from robbery.

"The meeting is being held next Thursday," said Michael.

"We are hopeful that he will be freed but we're trying not to count on the egg before it leaves the chicken.

"I think it's the obvious thing to do. If other people are entitled to get parole, why shouldn't my father? He represents no threat to society."

Michael said the planned release date would be July 3- if his bid was accepted by the Parole Board at the St George's Day meeting.

In February, Biggs was taken to the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital suffering from pneumonia.

It was the latest in a series of health problems he has suffered.