The notorious Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs, who lived in a care home in Barnet after being released from prison on medical grounds, has died at the age of 84.
Biggs was being cared for at the Carlton Court Care Home in Bells Hill, where he was sent in 2009 after being granted compassionate leave from Norwich Prison.
He fell ill with pneumonia in July that year while serving a 30-year sentence for his part in the 1963 mail train robbery.
He was part of a 15-strong gang that stole £2.6m from the Glasgow to London mail train on August 8, 1963.
The train's driver, Jack Mills, suffered head injuries during the robbery, though Biggs has always denied any part in inflicting them.
He was initially sent to Wandsworth prison in 1965 but scaled a wall with a rope ladder and jumped onto a mattress in a van.
On the run, he fled to France and Australia before living for many years in Brazil.
In 2001, he was in poor health and returned to the UK where he was sent to prison.
Just one week before he was granted permission to move to the care home in East Barnet, the Times Series reported him saying he wanted to carry on living “to spite those who want me dead”.
He said: “I’ve got a bit of living to do yet.”
He could not speak after a series of strokes, but used an alphabet board to communicate.
His son Michael, 34, granddaughter Ingrid, nine, and legal advisor Giovanni Di Stefano were with him when he entered the home.
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