Fugitive Biggs begins journey home

Biggs, right, with his son, Michael, who was born in Brazil, is on his way back to the UK

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil -- Fugitive Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs has started his journey back to Britain after 35 years on the run.

A private plane departed Rio at 4:15 p.m. (3:15 p.m. ET) Sunday, carrying the ailing 71-year-old to Britain. It was expected to land at RAF Norfolk between 11 a.m. and noon Monday (6 a.m. and 7 a.m. EDT).

Biggs, in poor health after three strokes, was helped from a wheelchair onto the plane, Brazilian TV showed. He was wearing a cowboy-style hat and a red shirt.

Biggs was part of the 15-member gang that held up a Glasgow-London mail train in August 1963, robbing an amount worth about $50 million today.

The robbery was dubbed the "Crime of the Century" and became famous in British folklore.

He was tried five months later, convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison, but he escaped 15 months later, fleeing first to Australia and then to Brazil.

Biggs fathered a son in Brazil, halting British attempts to extradite him. Brazilian law forbids deportation of parents.

But Biggs, partially paralysed and unable to speak following a series of strokes, recently expressed a desire to return home.

In an e-mail sent to Scotland Yard last week, Biggs wrote, "I would like to give myself up to you. What I need is passport documentation to travel back to Britain.

"I am prepared to be arrested at the gate when I arrive at Heathrow Airport and submit myself to the due process of the law."

In an interview with the British tabloid The Sun, Biggs said his last wish is to walk into an English pub and order a pint of bitter.

"The reality is that if he stayed in Brazil, he's living a slow death," said Mike Sullivan, The Sun's crime editor. "I think he would die within a year. His only option now is to come back."

Authorities still have a warrant out for Biggs, and he faces almost certain arrest when he lands on British soil.

Biggs has been issued with an emergency passport by the Foreign Office allowing him to make a single journey back to the UK, left Brazil, where has lived for many years, in a private jet on Sunday night.

Brazilian television showed live footage of Biggs and his entourage boarding the 14-seat plane before it took off from Rio De Janeiro's international airport.

It has not been revealed which airport he will arrive at.

The Foreign Office said on Saturday that Foreign Secretary Robin Cook personally intervened to check there would be no delays in issuing the documentation which will allow him to return to Britain to face justice.

Family friend Kevin Crace said Biggs was "very excited" about the prospect of coming back to Britain and his return was "imminent".

A Sun spokesman said on Saturday: "If all goes to plan Ronnie Biggs will be handed over to Scotland Yard within a week."

His imminent return has sparked a row over what should happen to Biggs 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.

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.

UK issues passport to fugitive
May 5, 2001
Train robber Biggs plans UK return
May 3, 2001
What is behind mobster mania?
October 1, 2000
No extradition for Britain's 'great train robber'
Nov. 13, 1997
Great Train robber Biggs may elude arrest
August 12, 1997

Ronnie Biggs
Scotland Yard
The Sun Newspaper

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