A Manchester law firm is helping Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs in his latest get-out-of-jail attempt.

Britain's most famous fugitive, who evaded all attempts to bring him back to justice for ore than three decades, is hoping the law he once laughed at will now release him from prison.

Today – the day after his 75 th birthday – Manchester-based Tranters Solicitors, will have proceedings issued in the high court against the Prison Service on his behalf.

The papers challenge the conditions of his continued detention in high-security Belmarsh Prison, London, on two main grounds.

His solicitor Kristen Bender is citing the continued refusal to transfer or release him as a violation of Prison Service Order 0900 and the Human Rights Act, Articles 3 and 8, as it subjects him to “cruel and inhuman conditions and an excessively harsh prison regime”.

She said today “We are most concerned that the high-security conditions to which Mr Biggs is currently subjected do not comply with the law and are unnecessary, given his inability to speak, eat or walk any distance.

“The Prison Service is retaliating against a sick, elderly man for an escape nearly 40 years ago, rather than punishing him appropriately and legally”.

She pointed out that British taxpayers currently paid £55,000 a year to keep Biggs, now partially paralysed, in prison.

He was convicted for his part in the 1963 robbery which was believed to have accelerated the train drivers' death. He was sentenced to 30 years jail. The gang stole £2.3m – the equivalent of £40m today.

After escaping and living in Australia and Brazil, Biggs taunted the authorities and evaded many attempts to get him back, including a kidnap by mercenaries.

But, as the years took their toll, ageing, broke and seriously ill, he surrendered himself into UK custody in 2001.

Miss Bender said he had suffered two strokes, resulting in facial paralysis which left him unable to speak or eat.

“He is fed liquids through a tube powered by an electric pump, and communicates by pointing to letters on a piece of A4 paper to spell words. He requires 24-hour nursing care, hence the considerable bill to taxpayers. Despite evaluating him as a Category C prisoner, the Prison Service holds him in high-security conditions.

“Requests to transfer him to a lower security prison have so far been denied.

“Requests to release him on compassionate grounds due to his extreme ill health have also been denied. Now, almost exactly 41 years after the Great Train Robbery, we are challenging the continued refusal to transfer or release him”.

Tranters has a prison law and human rights department that specialises in helping prisoners. It is understood the Manchester firm was recommended to Biggs by another inmate at Belmarsh.

It has applied for legal aid for the action.


Manchester Evening News, 9 th August 2004