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American Morning

Ronnie Biggs of Great Train Robbery Infamy in Police Custody

Aired May 07, 2001 - 09:05   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: One of the more colorful criminals of the 20th century is back in a London court today, after 36 years as a fugitive. Now 71 years old, Ronnie Biggs was convicted of participating in the Great Train Robbery of 1963.

CNN's Fionnuala Sweeney brings us up to date on all this, from London.

Good morning -- Fionnuala.

FIONNUALA SWEENEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Leon.

Ronnie Biggs returned to Britain, his home country, a few hours ago this morning as a free man, but he will spend his first night back home in prison. A couple of hours ago he went before a magistrates court in west London, and there he was ordered to return to prison to serve out the remaining 28 years of his sentence.

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SWEENEY (voice-over): More than 35 years after he fled his home country, the private jet carrying Ronnie Biggs touched down on British soil at an air force base west of London. Biggs was immediately met by detectives from Scotland Yard, who arrested him under a warrant for being unlawfully at large, a reference to his escape from prison in the 1960s. He was then driven away by police, after being examined by a doctor, and was being taken to a London police station, where he was being further examined.

The aircraft, chartered by the British tabloid "Sun" newspaper, had left Brazil amid a media scrum some 12 hours earlier, after British authorities had provided Biggs with emergency travel documents in order to make the journey. It followed an interview with the newspaper last week, in which the 71-year-old Biggs indicated his desire to return to England. A series of strokes has left him partially paralyzed and unable to speak.

Last week, he had sent an e-mail to Scotland Yard, saying, "I would like to give myself up to you. What I need is passport documentation to travel back to Britain.

It had been dubbed the crime of the century. In August 1963, Biggs was one of a 15-member gang who held up the Glasgow-to-London mail train, robbing $50 million in today's money. Five months later, he was brought to trial, and jailed for 30 years, But he escaped after just 15 months, fleeing first to Australia, before eventually settling in Brazil. There, Biggs fathered a son, and British attempts to extradite him failed, because, under Brazilian law, he could not be deported if he was a father.

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He may have had his wish to return to England, but he may have to wait some time before he has his other last wish, which is to have a pint of English beer in an pub. However, his lawyers say they plan to appeal his sentence -- Leon.

HARRIS: He'll be lucky to get that pint.

Thanks much, Fionnuala Sweeney, reporting live for us this morning from London.

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