Biggs back home with no regrets

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, MAY 7. The curtains came down today on one of Britain's most sensational and longest-running criminal cases when the man behind the ``Great Train Robbery'', Ronnie Biggs, returned home this morning from Brazil, 35 years after he escaped from a British jail.

The frail 71-year-old Biggs, a shadow of his once- roguish self and unable even to speak or stand straight, was arrested as soon as he landed at an RAF base, near London, in an executive jet chartered by The Sun which is making a great virtue of its role in bringing the fugitive to justice. ``It is the Sun wot brought him back, but it is the Sun wot is also going to make a lot of money from his story,'' one Londoner said mimicking the tabloid's famous boast after Labour's landslide victory in 1997 that ``It's the Sun wot did it.''

Biggs' arrival here shortly before 9 a.m. climaxed weeks of excitement and media hype over his desire to return home and have a ``pint'' at his favourite Margate pub before walking into the sunset. The man who pulled off a œ2.5 million heist in a running train - the Glasgow-London Mail - in 1963 is now a pauper, having squandered his share of the loot, œ147,000 on an ostentatious lifestyle, first in Australia and then in Brazil where he has lived for most of the past 35 years. He dodged extradition to Britain on the strength of a Brazilian law that protects parents of Brazilian children - Biggs having fathered a child there took shelter under that law.

The stories of his debauched life - boozing and womanising - are legion, and when he ran out of money he turned himself into a tourist attraction, charging visitors œ40 to ask him questions about his life. After two strokes reduced him to an invalid, even that source of income dried up and as debts piled up Biggs decided it was time to return home - and that's when he approached the British Government for a passport, offering in exchange to turn himself over to the police. He also approached The Sun for help which was quick to see that there was a story here crying to be cashed, and once it got into the act there was no stopping Biggs from returning home.

The tabloid flew to Brazil, Biggs' fellow train robber Bruce Reynolds, to accompany him back to Britain - to provide Biggs with a ``friendly face'' on the homeward journey, as The Times put it. Biggs had served only 15 months of his 30-year sentence when he escaped in 1965 in one of the most talked-about - and for the police embarrassing - jailbreaks. His adventures caught the imagination of a whole generation brought up on a diet of Bonnie and Clyde, and his nostalgia about Britain (``There is a part of every Englishman that is forever England,'' he said) has had a softening effect even on crime-busters. Life may have humbled him, but he has no regrets and describes the train robbery as ``the last decent crime ever committed.'' The police have made clear that he should expect no leniency but the Home Secretary has the discretion to show mercy on compassionate grounds.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : International
Previous : E.U. close to accord on migration of labour
Next     : Syrians air grievances before Pope