Epsom author Michael Gray is shocked and horrified at the decision to keep great train robber Ronnie Biggs in jail until he dies.

Michael Biggs, Ronnie’s son, was with Mr Gray when he heard the news from lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano that his father was to stay behind bars.

Mr Gray who has written a book, Ronnie Biggs – The Inside Story, said: “It was a very emotional moment and a call that we could not believe.

“Jack Straw was the Justice Minister in 1997 and applied for Biggs’s extradition.

“It was refused, so at the time Mr Straw looked very silly. As far as I am concerned it was revenge.

“You can rape a child or a woman, shoot someone dead with a gun – but for God’s sake, don’t steal the Queen’s money [the theft was from a Royal Mail train].”

Ronnie Biggs, 79, who is very frail after a series of strokes, is confined to a wheelchair and recently broke his hip.

He can only communicate with the use of an alphabet board and has to be fed through a tube.

He was jailed for 30 years for his part in the Great Train robbery, but escaped from Wandsworth prison to spend many years in Brazil.

He returned voluntarily to the UK eight years ago to serve his sentence and, because of his ill health, was expected to be paroled in time for his 80th birthday.

But last week, Justice Secretary Jack Straw blocked his release, on the grounds that the robber was “wholly unrepentant” and had shown no regret for his crime.

A surprising Ronnie Biggs supporter is outspoken Tory MP Ann Widdecombe.

She said: “The prisons are bursting at the seams.

"The courts are being urged to let burglars go free but one fairly doddery and very frail old man is being kept in prison.

“If you have got a prison place, for goodness’ sake, use it to lock up someone who is genuinely a risk to the public.”

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