Train robber Biggs heads home

Biggs -- heading home to face the music after 35 years

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- A private plane has arrived in Brazil to take fugitive Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs back to Britain.

Biggs, who still has 28 years to serve of a 30-year sentence for his part in the 1963 robbery, sent an e-mail to Scotland Yard earlier this week saying he wanted to give himself up.

The e-mail was sent from his home in Rio de Janeiro where he has spent the majority of his 35 years on the run.

His return to Britain is being orchestrated by national tabloid newspaper The Sun, which says it is bringing "a wanted criminal back to face justice."

A Sun spokesman said on Saturday: "We can confirm the Sun plane landed in South America early this morning.

"If all goes to plan Ronnie Biggs will be handed over to Scotland Yard within a week. Mr Biggs is looking forward to his flight home."

He said the plane was carrying a curry, a six-pack of beer and a jar of Marmite for Biggs.

A Scotland Yard spokeswoman said she had no knowledge of a plane being sent to Rio. "We don't discuss warrants before they are executed," she added.

The newspaper said Biggs had applied for a temporary passport in his own name which would allow him to travel back to Britain.

The Great Train robber has vowed to return to Britain from exile in Brazil "at the earliest opportunity."

His imminent return has sparked a row over what should happen to the ailing 71-year-old if and when he arrives back in the country.

Shadow Home Secretary Ann Widdecombe called for a "hard-headed" attitude towards the legendary crook, saying he should spend the rest of his life behind bars.

But Biggs's friends said that the authorities should treat him with compassion as he was in poor health following his third stroke and was now unable to speak.

And drinkers in the UK coastal resort of Margate -- where Biggs has said he wishes to "enjoy a pint of bitter like a true Englishman" -- said they would be queuing up to buy him a drink.

Home Secretary Jack Straw said any individual unlawfully at large from prison was liable to immediate re-arrest and return to prison as soon as it came to the notice of the police.

Biggs' lawyer in Brazil said the train robber was prepared to return to Britain regardless of whether he has to go to jail or not.

Meanwhile, the former Scotland Yard detective who nearly brought Biggs to justice 27 years ago said he would not meet him if he did return.

Flying Squad officer Jack Slipper, now 76, spent his career trying to get Biggs back to prison and arrested him in Rio in 1974, only for the extradition bid to collapse.

Biggs broke out of jail 15 months into his 30-year sentence but Slipper tracked him down to Rio and arrested him.

The criminal, however, successfully argued against extradition because he had a Brazilian dependant, a young son, Michael, now 26, by his girlfriend Raimunda.

The Great Train Robbers' record haul of £2.6 million was a huge sum in 1963 -- worth about £50 million at current values.

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Ronnie Biggs
Scotland Yard
The Sun Newspaper

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