I see Ronnie Biggs has been released from prison on compassionate grounds by Jack Straw, although doctors have said there is not much hope as he is severely ill with pneumonia.
It would seem that Ronnie Biggs's wish to "walk into a Margate pub as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter", will be unlikely.
Kevin Crace owner of the Westgate Pavilion a friend of Ronald Biggs who helped arrange his return to Britain was quoted earlier in the year by thisiskent website as saying "Ronnie was stationed in Margate during the war and that’s one of the reasons he wants to come back down. He is now an old man and just wants to live the remainder of his life in peace with his son. He is very keen to get down to Margate as soon as he is released."
I'm not attempting to mitigate the seriousness of Ronald Biggs crime but it does seem to have been cruel to have kept in prison despite his poor condition, I hope he recovers and hope he gets to have that pint. I’m sure there are far worse criminals than him who have serve considerably less time.
Ronald Biggs was a victim of our Victorian biased law that cruelly penalises a criminal who has the temerity to carry out a crime against property. We can have murderers and rapists who are awarded lesser sentences and drunk drivers running down and killing innocent victims who are not even imprisoned. I am glad that he has now been let out to die; his bigger offence in the eyes of the state, was that he made our Prison Service look stupid by breaking out of jail in the first place.
ReplyDeleteWell, I think you'll find he robbed a train in the first place Bertie, and left the driver for dead.
ReplyDeletePoint taken, Dickie.
ReplyDeleteHad he committed this crime today, Biggs would not have been sent down for very long - probably no more than a 10-15 stretch which with parole, could have meant he would be out in around seven years.
ReplyDeleteAfter 35 years on the run, the irony is that had Biggs stayed in jail all those years ago, he would have been out by the mid to late 1970s anyway -like most of the others in the gang.
Yes, the robbers did leave the train driver for dead - it took seven agonising years for driver Mills to die.