BIGGS IS UNREPENTANT I WILL NOT SET HIM FREE; Straw blocks train robber parole.Byline: AIDAN McGURRAN JACK Straw has shown no sympathy for Ronnie Biggs Ronald Arthur Biggs better known as Ronnie Biggs (born August 8, 1929) is an English prisoner who is known for escaping from prison after his minor role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963 and for being on the run for many years. - a crook with no regrets. The Justice Secretary yesterday took the rare step of issuing a damning statement as he blocked parole for the frail Great Train Robber, who can no longer eat or speak. Snubbing Snubbing is a type of heavy well intervention performed on oil and gas wells. It involves running the BHA on a pipe string using a hydraulic workover rig. Unlike wireline or coiled tubing, the pipe is not spooled off a drum but made up and broken up while running in and pulling parole board pa`role´ board` n. 1. A group of individuals with authority to determine whether a prisoner will be granted parole from a particular prison. advice to free the 79-year-old, Mr Straw insisted Biggs was "wholly unrepentant". He said: "Mr Biggs chose to serve one year of a 30-year sentence before he took the decision to escape, avoiding capture. He would have been free many years ago. "He chose not to obey the law and respect punishments. The legal system deserves respect." Biggs is in hospital after breaking a hip in Norwich jail and has been hit by strokes. He will be 80 on August 8 - 46 years to the day since his gang robbed a mail train of pounds 2.6million in Bucks. Keith Norman, of train drivers' union Aslef, backed the ruling. A rail man was hurt in the raid and Biggs was "a thug". But Harry Fletcher, of probation officers union Napo, said he was not now "a threat to anyone apart from politicians". A life on the run..until he became ill Jan 1964: Biggs stands trial for 1963 robbery and is jailed for 30 years. July 1965: Escapes from Wandsworth Prison. 1969: Biggs is traced to Australia. Flees to Brazil. 1974: Blocks extradition extradition (ĕkstrədĭsh`ən), delivery of a person, suspected or convicted of a crime, by the state where he has taken refuge to the state that asserts jurisdiction over him. bid because he had fathered son in Brazil. 1998: Suffers stroke. 2001: Sends email saying wants to return. Flies back. Arrested and sent to jail. Another stroke. 2009: Parole urged by officials. Straw says no. CAPTION(S): WANTED Biggs in police snap |
|
||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion