Straw baffled over Ronnie Biggs ‘release’

Reports today that Ronnie Biggs, one of the 1963 Great Train Robbers, could be released from prison this summer have been questioned by Jack Straw, the man who as Justice Secretary has ultimate responsibility for any such decision. It is not that Straw is against the idea, but that no one has actually asked for it to happen.

According to Mark Leech, the editor of the Prisons Handbook, a sort of Michelin Guide for old lags, Straw told him on Tuesday that "no-one has formally asked me for his release". Leech said: "I was shocked as I had assumed requests had been made and rejected but that's not the case."

A parole board is scheduled for July 3 at which it will be decided if Biggs can be released from Norwich jail, where he has served nine-and-a-half years after he gave himself up in 2001 because of ill-health.

One man died in the 1963 robbery, for which Biggs, who will be 80 in August, was sentenced to 30 years. However, he escaped from Wandsworth prison after 15 months by scaling the wall and ultimately fled to Rio de Janeiro where he was able to avoid extradition due to his having a son, Michael, with a Brazilian woman.

Many of Biggs's fellow train robbers are already dead: Charlie Wilson was murdered, Buster Edwards killed himself and others died of natural causes. ·