LONDON , England ( CNN ) -- Ailing `` Great Train Robber '' Ronnie Biggs -- one of the most notorious British criminals of the 20th century -- was formally released from prison to his death bed Friday after being granted his freedom on compassionate grounds . Ronnie Biggs , pictured at a book launch in Rio de Janeiro in 1994 . Biggs , who is gravely ill with severe pneumonia , is being cared for at a hospital in Norwich , eastern England , where he was moved on Tuesday . Three prison staff who had been assigned to Biggs ' bedside have been withdrawn following UK Justice Minister Jack Straw 's decision to authorize his release , a Ministry of Justice spokesperson told CNN . `` The medical evidence clearly shows that Mr Biggs is very ill and that his condition has deteriorated recently , culminating in his re-admission to hospital , '' Straw said in a statement Thursday . `` His condition is not expected to improve . '' Biggs ' son , Michael Biggs , said his father was `` over the moon '' that he had been released on the eve of his 80th birthday . Speaking to reporters outside the hospital , he confirmed his father had been handed his release papers . `` As a family , we are absolutely thrilled , '' Michael Biggs said , according to the UK 's Press Association . Biggs is unable to walk , barely able to communicate and no longer able to eat or drink , Michael Biggs said , adding that the family was `` very hopeful that my father will be able to survive the next few days . '' Biggs ' legal advisor Giovanni Di Stefano told journalists that Biggs was unlikely to ever leave his hospital bed . `` This man is ill , he 's going to die ... he is going to stay in hospital , '' he said . Saturday also marks the 46th anniversary of the infamous 1963 heist dubbed the `` crime of the century '' that transformed Biggs from a petty London thief into one of the most wanted men in Britain . Biggs and 14 other professional criminals made off with more than £2.5 million ( $ 4.2 million ) in used bank notes -- the equivalent of around £40 million ( $ 67 million ) today -- after holding up a mail train from Glasgow to London in the early hours of the morning . In the course of the robbery the train driver was badly beaten with an iron bar . Most of the gang , including Biggs , were soon picked up in a massive manhunt after police discovered fingerprints at a farmhouse hideout where the robbers had holed up to split their spoils . Biggs was sentenced to 30 years in prison but escaped over the wall of a London prison after serving just 15 months -- and spent most of the rest of his life as a celebrity fugitive . After undergoing extensive plastic surgery in Paris , Biggs made his way to Australia , living there with his wife and two children . Tracked down by police , Biggs fled again in 1969 , this time to Brazil . Five years later , Biggs was traced once more by a newspaper reporter . Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Jack Slipper , who had led police efforts to bring the train robbers to justice , flew out to Rio de Janeiro to arrest Biggs , allegedly greeting him at a beachside hotel : `` Long time no see , Ronnie . '' But efforts to bring Biggs home were frustrated because by then he had fathered a Brazilian-born son -- Michael Biggs -- and authorities rejected British requests for his extradition . Biggs continued to live openly in Rio , trading on his notoriety by entertaining tourists , selling t-shirts and even recording with the Sex Pistols . In 1981 he was kidnapped by a gang of British ex-soldiers and smuggled to Barbados . But legal efforts to have Biggs brought back to the UK once again stalled and he was allowed to return to Brazil . By the late 1990s Biggs was in poor health following a series of strokes and running out of cash . In 2001 he flew back to the UK on a private jet laid on by the Sun newspaper . He was promptly locked up in a high security prison but then moved to a facility for elderly prisoners . Since his return Biggs and his family have campaigned for his parole on compassionate grounds -- an appeal until now rejected by successive justice ministers on the grounds that Biggs had never shown any remorse for his actions . Michael Biggs said his father had expressed regret for the robbery -- but not for the life he had led in the years since the crime .
Ronnie Biggs freed on compassionate grounds because of ailing health . The former Beatle was released from a hospital in London after being diagnosed with cancer last month. Biggs , 80 on Saturday , has been hospitalized suffering from severe pneumonia . Biggs escaped from jail , spent decades as a fugitive before returning to UK in 2001 .