BIGGS FREED; Stricken Great Train Robber is released to die.

Byline: David Collins

DYING Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs was a free man last night after he was finally released on compassionate grounds.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw acted after doctors revealed there was "not much hope" that Biggs, who is battling pneumonia, would survive. The "old school villain", who spent more than 35 years on the run, is in no fit state to celebrate his freedom.

After a series of strokes, he's bedridden, fed through a tube and can barely talk.

Biggs's legal adviser Giovanni Di Stefano - the former Dundee FC director - said: "This man is ill, he's going to die. He is not going to any pub or going to Rio. He is going to stay in hospital.

"He is being released effectively to die and that cannot be considered a victory. But it's common sense and Mr Straw has made the right decision."

Survive

Last night, the robber's son, Michael, was said to be "absolutely delighted" that his dad wouldn't be dying under prison guard.

His spokeswoman Judy Totten added: "He hopes that his father will survive long enough to see his 80th birthday on Saturday."

Biggs was rushed to hospital from his cell at Norwich prison on Tuesday after his condition deteriorated. Previous bids to secure his freedom on compassionate grounds. had been rejected by Straw.

Last month, the Justice Secretary rejected Biggs's application for parole on the grounds. that the robber was "wholly unrepentant" about his crimes. Earlier applications were also refused - though the Parole Board backed his release.

But yesterday, Straw said: "The medical evidence clearly shows that Mr Biggs is very ill and that his condition has deteriorated recently, culminating in his readmission to hospital. His condition is not expected to improve.

"It is for that reason that I am granting Mr Biggs compassionate release on medical grounds."

Biggs will remain on bed watch overnight and the three prison staff guarding him will be withdrawn today.

Author Mike Gray, who wrote a book about the robbery, said last night: "Ronnie spends most of the day with his eyes closed. When Michael comes into the room, he opens them but can only communicate through blinking.

"It's better for all now if Ronnie dies. He's very, very ill. We've told him not to give up fighting but I can't see him lasting past the weekend."

Biggs is now a pale shadow of the cocky cockney villain who, with a gang of other criminals, stole pounds 2.6million in used banknotes from the Glasgow to London mail train in August 1963.

It was an audacious heist and Biggs and other gang members received sentences of up to 30 years.

But Biggs had no intention of doing the time and within 15 months he was out.

After scaling a 30ft wall, while other prisoners created a diversion, he escaped in a furniture van before fleeing the country. He went to Paris for pounds 40,000-wortof plastic surgery before travelling to Australia and living with his wife Charmian and two children.

In 1969, the authorities discovered his location and he fled to Brazil. There, he was tracked down by a reporter and later, his nemesis, Detective Inspector Jack Slipper of Scotland Yard.

But the detective was foiled in his attempts to take Biggs home because the fugitive had fathered a child, Michael, with Brazilian lover Raimunda de Castro.

For much of the next three decades, Biggs lived in Rio, making what money he could from his notoriety. He even recorded songs with the Sex Pistols But in the late 1990s, he had a series of strokes, leaving him in need of medical care.

On his return to the UK after more than 35 years on the run, Biggs said his last wish was to buy a pint of bitter in a pub in Margate.

Desperate

Instead, he was promptly locked up in Belmarsh high-security prison.

He has spent his last months in a specialist medical unit at Norwich Prison.

Prison service staff presented the Justice Secretary's decision letter to Biggs at the hospital just after 5.30pm.

Harry Fletcher, of NAPO, the probation officers' union said: "I welcome this decision. His medical condition was pretty desperate two months ago - he couldn't walk, could barely talk and he posed no risk to anybody."

During the 1963 heist, train driver JackMills was clubbed with an iron bar. He died seven years later of leukaemia.

Asked about Biggs yesterday, his son John Mi l l s said: "I ' m sorry. I don't wish to talk about this , I'm afraid."

CAPTION(S):

PNEUMONIA: Ronnie Biggs CRIME OF THE CENTURY: Top, the London to Glasgow mail train after the audacious robbery in 1963. Left, Biggs bashes a tambourine during the carnival in Rio in 1994. THE EARLY YEARS: Biggs in the 60s, around the time of the famous robbery ON HIS WAY OUT: Dying Biggs lies in a desperate state in his hospital bed in Norwich last month. The picture was released by his legal team.