Great Train Robber Ronald Biggs Released From Jail

The Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, who was released from prison on compassionate grounds, on Aug 7 2009, is severely ill in hospital.

Biggs, who turns 80 on Aug 8, was moved to Norfolk and Norwich hospital, suffering from severe pneumonia. After a series of strokes, he is bedridden, fed through a tube and communicates by pointing at letters on a card.

Biggs 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 £2.6m 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.

He was locked up in Belmarsh high-security prison on his return, before being moved to a specialist medical unit at Norwich prison.