Then he came home and gave himself up. 40 years after the event they refuse to release an 80 year old; blind deaf and infirm old man. Meanwhile the killers of Jamie Bulger were released from Stapleford Childrens home, Notts and now walk the street free as a bird.

Please don't compare him to others, he's not Robin Hood or some folk hero even though there seems to be a poor old Ronnie campaign on the go. The others shouldn't have got out, but that has nowt to do with his case.

Agreed but there comes a time when keeping an old lag incarcerated serves no purpose. Let him go home to die.

Which would be the cheaper option, keeping him in prison, or in 24 hour care old folks home? Pick the cheaper one.

Great comment made by jimmy car on 8 out of 10 cats.

They call him the great train robber, but he only robbed one train, and got caught, not that good was he!

I bet he didn't expect to do this long when he came back, it must have come as a surprise.... and remind me just why he did come back.

Why is it though a train robber who never killed anyone stays in jail till he's about to die when youv'e got people like the bastards who killed a little boy, let out after 14 15 years free to make themselves a new life

Ridicolous Words fail me

The 'Great' was more to do with the size of the 'job' rather than the number of attempts.

He's done 8 years of a much bigger sentence, don't fall for the guff of other cases, they may be well out of order, but he was the bloke who spent his time putting two fingers up at the system. As for no one getting killed, the rail union ASLEF welcomed the refusal, they haven't forgotten the driver who was coshed and never worked again, that's who deserved the sympathy.

Exactly. He's only finishing his duly pronounced (April, 1964) sentence off. If he'd never done a bunk in the first place it would have been finished long ago.
You need a better example, Mr Saydie. There are plenty of them.

Dont listen to all that driver shyte he obviously milked the system and stayed on the sick for the rest of his life

Are you stupid, or on the 'wind-up'?

Well thats the world we live in isn't it

...or maybe the world you live in eh?

Yes, but this old lag is unrepentant.

Fuck him.

P.S. The Bulger killers sentence (or lack thereof) is even more of a joke but a lesser wrong is still a wrong.

Glad to see you confirmed it for me.

Fook me this man robbed a train a gave the driver a few digs and went on the run. Then youv'e got the fooking likes of the bulger killers who killed a defenseless little boy who are then given new identities to get on with there lives.

And you say a lesser wrong.

Just dont even go there

I think you're misunderstanding. Or refer back to my earlier remark.

Wasting my time trying to educate pork.

Get in! Another opportunity to use it:

A self-taught man usually has a poor teacher and a worse student.

Actually i hardly went to school

Aw bless

I can't ever remember the point being missed so many times by the same person in the same thread.

sound of hammer hitting a nail on its head

And to think Jack Straw freed General Pinochet

Soooo... if a burglar broke into your house gave you a 'few digs' robbed you and went on the run, you'd be feeling sorry for him because he wasn't as bad as the Bulger killers.....?

Forgive me, but surely the problem is with the sentence passed down to the bulger killers rather than the one being enforced against Briggs?

I see no issue with the length of or the enforcing Briggs sentence regardless of his age or ill health. However the 'joke' sentencespassed down to the killers of bulger were franly apauling.

This countries sentencing of criminals has been bonkers for ages now though, highlighted best by the (7 year?) sentence passed down to the seaton canoe man and the 2 year one passed within a week of it, given to a man who fatally wounded another man in an unprevoked assault.

I have no problem with the seven years for fraud, but surely the sentencing of the other man was the work of a mad man

Seaton Canoe man?

...and we have eighty six thousand prisoners - which we're all paying a fortune for, the highest in Western Europe.
I'm not saying Thompson and Venables got the right sentence because they should have got far longer though. But if we lengthened all those ridiulous sentences (which I think we should with a number of crimes) then we will have to imprison many more people at a time, build new prisons, pay for them etc.
Personally I reckon Biggs should have been allowed home to live the rest of his short life - but that's his fault and I'm not going to moan about it...

Biggs only came back here to take advantage of the National Health Service anyway..

The Jamie Bulger case is an emotive one for obvious reason.. It was kids killing kids... people make big changes over the period of time they had locked up and I hope for the case of poor Jamie they have.

As for letting him out Biggs cos he's old..well fair enough he won't cause any damage now (lets face it if he'd never fooked off to Brazil in the first place he'd be out by now) but if you can't do the time don't do the crime..