Biggs 'considered for parole'
- 00:01:07
- ITN
Biggs 'considered for parole'
The Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs could be released from prison next summer.The 78-year-old's lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano claims the Ministry of Justice has sent his case to the Parole Board and he could be released in July 2009.Mr Di Stefano claims Biggs is entitled to be released because he has served more than one third of his sentence.He said: "They are not counting the time he spent in custody in Brazil and Barbados and of course I will press them on this as it would make his release date on parole December 2008."Ronnie has spoken a few words to his son Michael and said that he can now see the end of this nightmare. Common sense has prevailed."Biggs was sentenced to 30 years for his part in the £2.6 million robbery of a mail train in August 1963 but he escaped from Wandsworth prison in a furniture van after serving 15 months.He spent more than 30 years on the run in Spain, Australia and Brazil but returned to Britain voluntarily.He was imprisoned in Belmarsh high-security prison but later moved to a unit in Norwich jail.Mr Di Stefano says Biggs was convicted when no parole scheme was in operation, and the criterion at the time of his sentence was that parole be considered at the one third stage."Mr Biggs' co-defendants benefited by the scheme," he has said."Case law demands that Mr Biggs be treated in accordance with the law at that time, namely parole consideration at the one third stage."The Ministry of Justice and the Parole Board both said they could not comment on individual cases.
ITN | June 26, 2008
