- LONDON (AFP) - After 35 years
on the run, plastic surgery, daring escapes and life as a playboy, fugitive
Ronnie Biggs said on Thursday he wanted to return to Britain to face the
music over the 1963 "Great Train Robbery".
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- Biggs, 71, one of the country's most notorious criminals,
confirmed in a statement issued through a family friend in Britain that
he had decided to hand himself over to the authorities on his arrival.
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- "I fully intend to go back to the United Kingdom
at the earliest opportunity," added the escaped robber, now debt-ridden,
in failing health and reportedly yearning for his native country.
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- Biggs faces immediate arrest and the prospect, in theory
at least, of having to serve all but 15 months of the 30-year sentence
imposed on him for his part in what became known as The Great Train Robbery.
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- He was part of a gang that escaped with a then record
2.6 million pounds -- estimated to be about 50 million pounds (80 million
euros, 75 million dollars) in today's money -- after holding up a mail
train.
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- Train driver Jack Mills, 57, was coshed with iron bars
during the robbery. He never made a full recovery and died seven years
later.
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- The heist was portrayed in the film "Buster"
starring Phil Collins and Julie Walters.
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- Biggs was caught soon after the robbery and tried in
January 1964, but escaped from jail after only 15 months by using a rope
ladder to scale a wall and jumping down on to a mattress on a van.
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- He said in an interview with The Sun newspaper that he
now hoped to rely on the mercy of the court system because of his age and
failing health and the time elapsed since his crime.
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- "I am a sick man," said Biggs, who reportedly
spending decades enjoying the life of a playboy bankrolled by his share
of the stolen cash.
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- "My last wish is to walk into a Margate pub as an
Englishman and buy a pint of bitter," he said, referring to a southern
English resort town.
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- After the heist, Biggs fled to France for plastic surgery
to disguise his appearance, recovered in Spain and spent time in Australia
before settling in Brazil in 1970.
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- But even in this exotic setting he could not escape his
past.
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- He made a deal with the Daily Express newspaper in 1974
amid rumours that he would surrender if assured an early parole date, but
the paper contacted police, who arrested him in Rio de Janeiro.
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- However, because his son Michael was born there, Biggs
could not be extradited.
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- In 1981, the robber was kidnapped in Rio by a gang of
adventurers and smuggled to Barbados by boat, bound and gagged in a sack
marked "live snake."
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- Their aim was to bring him back to Britain. But the Barbados
High Court refused to allow his extradition and Biggs was allowed to return
to Brazil.
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- His statement through a friend on Thursday confirms an
earlier report by Scotland Yard that the head of its serious crime squad
had received an e-mail overnight from a man claiming to be Biggs.
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- The e-mail, which included a picture of his thumb-print,
allowing police to check it against records, read: "I am prepared
to be arrested at the gate when I arrive at Heathrow airport in London
and submit myself to the due process of the law."
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- Ann Widdecombe, spokeswoman for Britain's opposition
Conservative party, said that if Biggs entered the country he should be
returned to prison.
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- "It is not an advertisement for the rule of law
that somebody can be given a very hefty sentence, escape pretty early into
the time they are doing, then live a playboy existence at a great distance,
laugh at British law and then come back and say 'Now I'm here it's not
worth pursuing me, is it?'"
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