shirleymckie.myfastforum.org

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 510

Ronnie Biggs applies for parole 46 years after great train robbery

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/apr/23/ronnie-biggs-parole-meeting

The great train robber Ronnie Biggs is having his parole board hearing today in the hope of being released in time to celebrate his 80th birthday in August. His family and friends said yesterday they were hopeful the parole board panel would recommend his release on the grounds that Biggs is unlikely to reoffend.

Biggs is entitled to apply for release as he will have served a third of his sentence by this summer. The final decision rests with Jack Straw, the justice secretary, who can reject recommendations on prisoners serving a fixed sentence of more than 15 years but less than life.

Biggs is in the hospital wing of Norwich prison, having suffered a series of strokes. He is not attending the hearing in person. His family say that he is unable to walk and can communicate only by using an alphabet board. They say that the chances of him committing another crime are "zero" and he will have to spend the rest of his life in a nursing home, which is being arranged in case he is released.

Biggs was jailed for 30 years for his part in what remains the best-known robbery in British history. The £2.5m robbery of the Glasgow-London train in 1963 led to some of the heaviest sentences ever handed out to robbers at their trial the following year. The train driver, Jack Mills, was beaten unconscious during the robbery. He died of an unrelated illness in 1970. Biggs escaped from Wandsworth prison in 1965 and fled first to Australia, then to Brazil where he fathered a child, Michael, who has British citizenship and is now in London campaigning for his father's release on compassionate grounds. Biggs returned to the UK in 2001 after suffering his first stroke in Brazil.

Giovanni Di Stefano, Biggs's lawyer, said in a written submission to the parole board that Biggs was a different man from the one who went on the run. "Mr Biggs has changed and changed for the better," he said, arguing that Biggs had voluntarily returned to Britain "to face the music".

The panel can make an immediate recommendation, as early as today, which is forwarded to Straw who will then consider whether or not to accept it. He will then give his decision to Biggs's lawyer. The parole board does not comment on individual cases.

Di Stefano said that 4 July, when Biggs will have served a third of his sentence, was the earliest date for his release. His release would likely be followed by a bidding war for his story. A book about his time in jail, The Inside Story, by Mike Gray, has just been published.

gustav51 · Joined: 26 May 2008 Posts: 16

Perhaps...this is a case that calls for compassion ?
All human life is precious and I am sure the victims family will never be able to reconcile with the subject's release, however one could consider that allied with the offenders risk of a repeated crime and his exile from the UK , Mr Biggs has indeed been suitably punished?

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 510

I would say he should be freed. He was not the only one involved in this and I am sure most people would have compassion for an old man asking for parole.

This was a robbery that happened when I was just a baby. No one was killed in the robbery.

Lets hope they can all let bygones be bygones. Ronnie Biggs was but one person in amongst several people involved in this.

I think the fact he escaped and got out of the country for so long did not go down well with the powers that be Laughing

I say good luck to him and hope he gets his parole to spend his final days with loved ones.

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1141 Location: Glasgow

I read in yesterday's Sun that the parole board put up NO objections, but they have postponed the decision.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2392239.ece

But no suitable nursing home could be found for him after health chiefs in Barnet, North London — where his family live — refused to pay for the 24-hour care he needs.

What right does health chiefs have to refuse to pay for his 24 hour care he needs ?

Is he not already getting the same care behind bars but at a much more inflated rate ?

The Parole Board said a decision should be made by July.

July seems years away to someone so frail, Perhaps they are waiting like Lockerbie's Megrahi, in the hope he dies before they need to release him.
_________________
http://justiceforwulliebeck.webs.com/index.htm

http://williambeck.blogspot.com/

http://williambeck.wordpress.com/about/

scotkaz · Joined: 28 Aug 2008 Posts: 510

The man looks really dangerous and ready to go and commit more crimes eh? ] Rolling Eyes

Lawyers challenge Biggs decision

Lawyers for Great Train robber Ronnie Biggs have claimed Justice Secretary Jack Straw acted outside his powers in denying the 79-year-old parole.

Biggs's solicitor said laws the minister relied on when making Tuesday's decision were invalid.

The lawyers said one had been repealed and the other was overruled by the House of Lords in 2002.

The Ministry of Justice said Mr Straw has the power to reject Parole Board recommendations.

Biggs is being treated at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

He was expected to be freed on Friday had the justice secretary sanctioned a decision made by the Parole Board last month.

Mr Straw rejected the recommendation on the grounds he was not sufficiently repentant.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: "The Justice Secretary absolutely retains the right to veto parole board recommendations to release prisoners sentenced for a sexual or violent offence committed prior to April 2005 and who have been given a a determinate sentence of 15 years or over."

Scots Against Injustice · Joined: 22 Jun 2009 Posts: 41

Post removed.

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1141 Location: Glasgow

Instead of clicking Edit I think I clicked Quote instead, hence the three posts

Sorry for the inconvenience

See Post Below
_________________
http://justiceforwulliebeck.webs.com/index.htm

http://williambeck.blogspot.com/

http://williambeck.wordpress.com/about/

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1141 Location: Glasgow

Scots Against Injustice

There will be no chance of Megrahi being moved to Libya then ?

After all he has been convicted of the worst ever murder in Scotland.

Actually the question is :- are we to act inhumanely and stoop to lower standards than we had in 1970.

Is this man any longer a threat to society.

These are the type of questions that would be asked by a parole board.

The fact Jack Mills passed away a broken man is not the issue for any parole board.

Is the man McCulloch not being prepped for release with days out of prison on shopping trips etc etc, when Lord Dunpark sentenced them to natural Life saying they both should never be released for the Carstairs Murders.

I am sure the public would rather have a thief released from jail rather than two Loonies from Carstairs would they not ?

But then again it has always been the case in this country, that if you steal public money from Bamks or Post Offices then you go to jail for longer periods of time.

Money has always been valued more than "Life Itself"

In my own opinion Biggs should be let out of prison, I do not buy this perception that he could be in contact with known prisoners if he was released either, The man clearly probably doesn't even know what day it is.

To keep someone like this in prison can only be for one reason "Revenge" for his escape and embarrassment he caused the Authorities.

This is wrong.

Revenge is no excuse to act Inhumanely
_________________
http://justiceforwulliebeck.webs.com/index.htm

http://williambeck.blogspot.com/

http://williambeck.wordpress.com/about/

Big Wullie · Joined: 25 Apr 2007 Posts: 1141 Location: Glasgow

For some reason my above post posted three times, Sorry
_________________
http://justiceforwulliebeck.webs.com/index.htm

http://williambeck.blogspot.com/

http://williambeck.wordpress.com/about/

Scots Against Injustice · Joined: 22 Jun 2009 Posts: 41

Post removed.