-Caveat Lector- Monday May 7 1:30 PM ET Britain's Great Train Robber Biggs Back in Jail http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010507/wl/crime_biggs_dc_9.html By Karen Matusic LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's notorious ``Great Train Robber'' Ronnie Biggs ended 35 flamboyant years as a fugitive on Monday, flying home on an executive jet from Rio de Janeiro to London where he was immediately arrested. About 60 Scotland Yard police officers were waiting at an air base west of London to detain the ailing 71-year-old when he set foot on British soil. His trip was paid for by a tabloid newspaper. Biggs, a shadow of the man who escaped from prison in 1965 by scaling a wall just 15 months into his sentence, was taken from the airport to a London court and barely grunted ``yes'' when he was asked by the judge to confirm his identity. He is hardly able to speak after suffering three strokes which have reduced him to communicating largely in handwritten notes. In a hearing lasting only a few minutes, the judge ordered him to serve out the remaining 28 years of his 30-year sentence. Biggs was then taken to London's top security Belmarsh Prison which houses some of Britain's most dangerous offenders. Before takeoff, Biggs had signed a declaration stating he was leaving of his own free will -- the only condition Brazilian (news - web sites) police set for his departure from the country he had made his home for 30 years. His arrival in London threw him straight into a storm of controversy over ``check book journalism'' and criticism from relatives of the train driver injured in the robbery who said Biggs should not be treated as a criminal folk hero. Will Appeal Sentence Biggs's lawyer Jane Wearing said he would appeal his sentence and a family friend said the court should take into consideration Biggs's health and the fact that he gave himself up. ``Ronnie is quite weak and obviously the long flight took its toll,'' said a family friend who saw Biggs Monday. In the days before his return to Britain, Biggs said he was giving himself up so he could enjoy a curry and a beer in a British pub before he died. However Biggs was also driven to return because he could no longer afford the medical care he needs in Brazil, where he has lived in near poverty in recent years. The high-profile robbery and Biggs's former playboy lifestyle as a fugitive in Rio de Janeiro have turned him into a criminal legend, spawning several films and making heroes out of British villains in the eyes of many filmgoers around the world. The robbery of the Glasgow-to-London night mail train in 1963 netted 2.6 million pounds -- some $50 million in today's money. The driver of the train was clubbed and badly injured in the attack and never worked again. Relatives of the driver, Jack Mills, said Biggs should not be allowed to cash in on his notoriety. ``Biggs should rot in jail and that should be the end of him,'' the driver's son John Mills told the Daily Mirror. The Sun newspaper, which footed the bill for Biggs's return, spread the news over its first seven pages with a front page proclaiming: ``Got Him.'' Biggs was pictured in a wheelchair, carrying a cane and wearing a red T-shirt with ``The Sun'' emblazoned on it. Newspaper Under Investigation Britain's Press Complaints Commission said it was investigating whether the newspaper broke rules banning payments to criminals or their associates. Rival newspapers said the Sun paid Biggs's son, and fellow robber Bruce Reynolds and his son, 44,000 pounds for their help in bringing Biggs to London. Reynolds served 10 years of a 28-year sentence for the train robbery. ``The issues relating to payments by a national newspaper to Ronnie Biggs and his associates raise a number of issues under the newspaper code of practice,'' the commission said in a statement. A spokesman for the Sun told BBC radio the newspaper was acting in the public interest by ``returning a convicted criminal home to face British justice and at no cost to the British taxpayer.'' Other newspapers were quick to ask why taxpayers should pay for Biggs to be cared for by the publicly funded health system. The Daily Mail estimated the prison, medical and legal costs would reach 100,000 pounds ($144,000) in a year if Biggs lived that long. The Star tabloid reported 74 percent of readers in a phone poll said Biggs should return to jail and not get the chance to have his beer in a pub. Biggs used his share of the robbery loot to pay for plastic surgery and papers for a passage to Australia, where he returned to his old job of carpenter and decorator. When criminal friends in Australia learned police were closing in, Biggs fled to Brazil via Panama and Venezuela. The birth of a son to his Brazilian girlfriend gained him a last-minute reprieve from extradition to Britain in 1974. Biggs's main worry as he left Rio appeared to be returning to chilly British weather without a sweater. ``I've never needed them since the day I arrived in Rio...I don't want to get back to England and catch my death of cold,'' he said. ============================================== SPY NEWS is OSINT newsletter and discussion list associated to Mario's Cyberspace Station http://mprofaca.cro.net/mainmenu.html ============================================== *** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. 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