Great Train Robber could be shifted to care home

London: Freed train robber Ronnie Biggs could be moved to a London care home as early as this weekend after a remarkable improvement in his health.

Family say the relief of being freed by Justice Secretary Jack Straw has given Biggs, 80, the strength to fight the pneumonia and other ailments that threatened his life.

He may be transferred to the Barnet nursing home, linked to the local hospital.

They also say that Biggs's prolonged stay at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, where he was yesterday scheduled to have surgery to replace a tube which feeds him, has helped his recovery.

Biggs's improvement comes days after Straw announced that he was freeing the Great Train Robber on compassionate grounds because of medical evidence that he was unlikely to recover. It has surprised friends, who were convinced Biggs was going to die at any hour in hospital.

His son Michael, 34, had rushed to his father's bedside several times after doctors expressed concern about Biggs's condition.

One friend said: "The danger now is him overdoing it. The sheer relief of actually being freed has unlocked reserves of strength the doctors didn't know he still had. His major decline came after he had been told he was to be released earlier this year, then Jack Straw decided not to.

"It really battered his morale and he sunk deep. Now he is feeling genuinely better, but we still aren't clear of the woods."

Since his release was announced, Biggs has given a brief interview to a Brazilian TV show, TV Globo's Fantastico. In it he spelt out 'I Love Brazil' on the alphabet board he uses to communicate and then said he was missing the country's beer.

He is also preparing to update his autobiography, Odd Man Out. Ghostwriter Christopher Pickard, who visited Biggs on Sunday, said: "Ron wants to get the final chapters of his life written down.

"But it's got to be done slowly. He is still a very, very sick man, but there is still the twinkle in the eye and he has not lost his sense of humour."

On Saturday Biggs was well enough to leave his hospital bed and sit in a chair to mark his 80th birthday.