Today (Friday), says BBC TV. On compassionate grounds, as the 79-year-old is near death with pneumonia. Story here.
This is just a few weeks after Biggs was turned down for parole. Some of the papers are calling this a flip-flop on the part of the Justice minister, Jack Straw, but it really is two different things.
Release on parole indicates that the prisoner has served time, is repentant and ready for rehabilitation. Bigg’s illness notwithstanding, the dept of justice was not convinced (I wasn’t either, FTR) that these things were true.
Compassionate release indicates that the prisoner is so ill (with no expectation of recovery) that keeping them behind bars serves no useful purpose. These are the grounds on which Biggs is being released, and no-one expects him to leave hospital/nursing care.
Si
The Wikipedia entry for the robbery says the 2.6 million pounds sterling stolen was equal to 38 million pounds in 2008, adjusting for inflation, or US$56 million. Quite a haul! Beats knocking over 7-Elevens.
“As a result of this robbery, the British Railways rule book was amended. If stopped by a red signal drivers had previously been required to contact the signaller by telephone, which required them to leave the driving cab. After the change, drivers of mail trains were no longer allowed to leave the cab at red signals and were always to keep their cab doors locked. These rules remained in force until the retirement of mail trains in the UK.”
In a single day (September 16 1992), the Prime Minister (Major) and the Chancellor (Lamont) lost the UK billions of pounds by crass panicked economic decisions. :rolleyes:
No charges were ever brought. :smack:
BBC’s Breakfast programme were saying that the release on compassionate grounds guildelines referred to someone having only a matter of weeks to live. Given that they are reporting Biggs as being bedridden, virtually unable to communicate and being tube-fed, whatever you might feel about justice being served (or not), it’s hard to argue that he should be kept in prison rather than in a proper hospital setting.
The fact is that he’s not going to recover and it’s just a case of how long he’ll hang on now.
Justice has not been served. He stayed out on the run, living the high life until he ran out of the money he had stolen, then when he was ill and old decided to come back and let the British taxpayer foot the bill for his treatment. He can’t die soon enough, the cynical old murderer.
He just died 4 plus years after release–longer than people expected:
“Great Train Robber” Ronnie Biggs – one of the most notorious British criminals of the 20th century – has died, his publisher told CNN on Wednesday. He was 84.
Well it was a matter of weeks. Oh, about 220 or so?
Now you know why us Americans were upset that you released the Lockerbie bomber. He was “near death” for 3 years before the bastard finally croaked.
His criminal record has been greatly exaggerated, mainly as a result of media hype. He was really very much a nothing, a zero, utterly inconsequential. His role in the train robbery was incredibly small, and ultimately inept.
He was in The Sex Pistols though…
The Great Train Robbery is on BBC1 right now. Was it put on at the last minute or is this a funny coincidence?
It’s an original drama, so would have been commissioned a year or more ago, and scheduled a couple of months ago. Nice of Biggs to do the decent thing and give it a ratings boost 