Spite or right? Ronnie Biggs will probably die in jail

Posted: Thu 2 Jul 2009 8 13 am

An utter lack of remorse last night condemned Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs to an almost certain death behind bars.

Jack Straw ruled that - despite the Parole Board saying the frail 79-year-old was safe to be released - he must stay in jail.

The Justice Secretary, whose shock decision divided MPs and legal experts, said Biggs had been 'wholly unrepentant' and did not deserve to be granted parole.

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Tory MP and former home office minister Ann Widdecombe said: 'The prisons are bursting at the seams. The courts are being urged to let burglars go free, but one fairly doddery and very frail old man is being kept in prison.

'If you have got a prison place, for goodness' sake use it to lock up someone who is genuinely a risk to the public.'

But Mr Straw said: 'Mr Biggs chose to serve only one year of a 30-year sentence before he took the personal decision to commit another offence and escape from prison, avoiding capture by travelling abroad for 35 years whilst outrageously courting the media.

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Biggs had been eligible for release tomorrow, by which time he would have served ten years of his 30-year sentence.

Now he appears doomed to die in jail, having had a series of strokes. He cannot eat or speak, can barely walk and last weekend broke his hip falling out of bed in Norwich Prison.

Sources said he had deteriorated in the past 24 hours and medics classed him as 'poorly'.

He will not be entitled to another parole hearing until next year at the earliest, by which time he may have died.

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1196817/BREAKING-NEWS-Shock-Train-Robber-Ronnie-Biggs-refused-parole-wholly-unrepentant.html

Whilst recognising that he was a "wrong 'un" I personally can't see the purpose in keeping a half dead old cripple locked up in a high security nick at great public expense.

It's not as if he's going to hold up any more trains is it?

Joined: 03 Jan 2006 Posts: 593

It can only be spite. A payback for evading British authorities for so long. Nothing to do with genuine justice.

The main question must be whether this frail, dying old man, is a threat to the public.

The parole board recommended release. Jack Straw is an idiot, well past his sell by date.

Posted: Thu 2 Jul 2009 2 59 pm

I quite agree. Even though he only came "home" for free medical treatment, it would save us taxpayers' a little money if they could take the guards off his hospital bed and let him die in peace.

Jack Straw is a pillock, trying to look "tough".

Posted: Thu 2 Jul 2009 6 10 pm

Now Straw has refused a pardon for Michael Shields, the poor bloke notoriously wrongly convicted of murder abroad (where was it? Bulgaria?).

A proper Man of Straw! Rolling Eyes

Posted: Thu 2 Jul 2009 8 24 pm

Free the Train Robbery One!