Biggs' son vows to fight for his freedom
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The son of Ronnie Biggs has said he is 'appalled' Justice secretary Jack Straw has refused to release the frail 79-year-old.
The Great Train Robber can no longer speak and has to be fed by a tube. He is currently in Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital after breaking his hip in a fall at the weekend.
Mr Straw turned down his bid for parole - even though it was recommended by the parole board - because Biggs was 'wholly unrepentant' about his actions and had 'outrageously courted the media' while on the run from prison.
But his son Michael Biggs insisted that his father had expressed regret for his crime and vowed to keep fighting for his release.
He said: 'If this is the British legal system, it is appalling, it's beyond comprehension. He is totally incapacitated, he was never a violent man.
'My father has served the same amount of time as any of the train robbers and by the Government's rules has been rehabilitated.'
He added: 'We are going to appeal because according to the Government my father is unrepentant about this crime.'
Now, we have to continue fighting because my father has publicly said he is sorry about what has happened.'
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 southwest London by climbing a 30ft wall and fleeing in a furniture van.
Biggs was on the run for more than 30 years, living in Spain, Australia and Brazil, before voluntarily returning to the UK in 2001.
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