U.K. train robber Biggs to be released over health concerns

Ronnie Biggs, one of the culprits behind Britain's Great Train Robbery of 1963, has been granted release from prison on compassionate grounds as his health deteriorates.

British Home Secretary Jack Straw, who rejected an earlier parole bid by Biggs last month, said the decision was based on medical evidence that the ailing 79-year-old is not expected to recover.

Biggs has pneumonia and has suffered a series of strokes that have left him bedridden.

The prison officers watching him at the Norwich and Norfolk Hospital will remain overnight and leave on Friday once the paperwork for his release is complete, Straw said.

He is known for his part in the daring heist of 2.5 million pounds from a Glasgow to London night train by a gang of 15 robbers.

Biggs was given a 30-year sentence but escaped 15 months later and travelled under an alias to Australia, Argentina and Bolivia before settling in Brazil. He spent part of his loot on plastic surgery and fake travel documents.

He returned to Britain voluntarily in 2001, telling a U.K. tabloid newspaper his last wish was "to walk into a Margate pub as an Englishman and buy a pint of bitter."