Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs is to be released from prison on compassionate grounds due to ill health.
British Justice Secretary Jack Straw announced the release today.
He has served 10 years of a 30-year sentence. He was refused parole by the Justice Secretary Jack Straw last month.
The 79-year-old inmate at Norwich Prison in eastern England has since been admitted to hospital suffering from a chest infection. His son, Michael, has made desperate pleas for his release.
Mr Straw said he had made the initial decision to refuse parole principally because Biggs had shown ‘no remorse for his crimes nor respect for the punishments given to him’.
He said he had been influenced by the Parole Board's judgement which had found his propensity to breach trust a very significant factor.
But Mr Straw said he had changed his mind after considering the prisoner's health, specifically whether death was likely to occur soon and whether the prisoner was bedridden or incapacitated.
Along with 11 other gang members, Biggs robbed a Glasgow-to-London mail train in 1963 and stole £2.6m -- about £30m in today's money. The crime became known as The Great Train Robbery.
He was caught and sentenced the following year but escaped from prison after just 15 months.
He used his share of the loot to pay for plastic surgery and papers for a passage to Australia where he returned to his old job of carpenter and decorator. He later fled to Brazil via Panama and Venezuela.
His playboy lifestyle and cocky defiance of the British authorities made him a criminal legend, spawning several films and making heroes out of the villains in the eyes of millions around the world.
He surrendered to police in 2001 after 36 years on the run.
The British Ministry of Justice said Biggs will spend one more night being watched by prison guards before his release.
‘It won't come into effect until tomorrow morning once license papers have been signed, then he will be free to go’, a spokesman for the Ministry of Justice said.
