Biggs will die as a free man; CRIME: Family's delight as ill train robber is released.

Byline: PA Reporter

GREAT Train Robber Ronnie Biggs was enjoying his first full day of freedom today after he was released from his prison sentence on compassionate grounds.

Biggs, who is severely ill with pneumonia, may spend his last days in hospital and doctors have said there is "not much hope" for him.

But last night Biggs, who has suffered three strokes and cannot talk, used a spelling board to tell his son he was "over the moon".

Michael Biggs said his father will undergo minor surgery today to change a tube in his stomach.

His family hopes he will survive long enough to see his 80th birthday tomorrow - 46 years to the day since the robbery.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw granted the compassionate release after medics said his condition had deteriorated and he was not expected to recover.

Speaking outside Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital last night, Michael Biggs said: "As a family we're absolutely delighted, common sense has prevailed.

"We are very hopeful that my father will be able to survive the next few days."

He said his father was smiling but extremely frail, adding: "With regards to my father having any regrets, my father does regret hav-intaken part in the robbery, however my father does not regret leading the life he led because had he not led that life he would not have me as a son or my daughter as his granddaughter.

"So just to clear that my father is sorry he committed a crime but not the subsequent life he led."

Only last month Mr Straw rejected Biggs's application for parole on the grounds that he was "wholly unrepentant" about his crimes.

He said today: "The medical evidence clearly shows that Mr Biggs is very ill and that his condition has deteriorated recently, culminating in his re-admission 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."

General secretary of the train drivers' union Aslef, Keith Norman, said: "It's ludicrous that a man who was part of a gang that committed a violent crime and attacked an innocent man and hit him with an iron bar should be a person who deserves clemency."

CAPTION(S):

Freed: Train robber Ronnie Biggs.