London - Great train robber Ronnie Biggs has flown out of Brazil, and will end 35 years as a fugitive from justice when he arrives back on British soil aboard a private flight from Rio to face certain arrest.
The most notorious member of the gang who carried out the 1963 "great train robbery", now 71 and in poor health, has decided to end 31 years of exile in Brazil where he had become a local celebrity.
The private jet, hired by the British tabloid newspaper The Sun, left Brazil at 20h15 GMT on Sunday for what was expected to be a 13-hour flight back into the clutches of British justice.
The media scrum at Rio de Janiero's international airport, which forced a van carrying Biggs to escape to a side entrance, was expected to be bettered upon his arrival in London.
The then-record £2,6-million train robbery - estimated to be worth £50-million (about R580-million in today's money - has entered the annals of criminal legend.
The heist spawned a string of films and books and made heroes, or anti-heroes, of its protagonists, an odd assortment of characters including a racing driver, a lawyer, an antiques dealer and a florist.
Police in Rio confirmed that Biggs, who escaped from jail in the 1960s, was returning to Britain voluntarily after over three decades of self-imposed exile.
According to Monday's Sun the only thing the ailing Biggs, who has suffered at least two debilitating strokes, feared upon his return to England was the cold.
"What's the weather like anyway? I hope it's not brass monkey weather, as we used to say back home. God, that seems like a long time ago. It will be a shock to feel the cold again," Biggs was quoted as saying.
"I don't want to get back to England and catch my death of cold."
It was not known where the plane, due to land in England sometime Monday morning, would land.
Wherever he was to touch down, The Sun was making the most of its media coup in bringing home arguably Britain's most famous criminal.
"Got him" was the bestselling tabloid's headline, next to a picture of the frail Biggs sitting in a wheelchair in a red T-shirt bearing the paper's logo.
"We bring Biggs home to justice after 13 068 days on the run," the paper crowed.
The paper reported that Biggs was physically weakened by his strokes and had great difficulty talking, prefering to scribble notes.
"I should be able to tell the judge when I get home to give me bail," Biggs told the paper.
"Now I'm on my way and ready to finally face the music."
The paper reported that Biggs had decided to end his Brazilian exile as he did not wish to become a burden to his 26-year-old Brazilian-born son Michael.
"He can't go on with his own life while carrying me," the debt-ridden Biggs was quoted as saying. He added that he hoped to return to Brazil at some stage "but as a free man".
But for the time being: "I want to be free in England again. I have to go back to England," he said.
The BBC opined that Biggs could expect hospital, under police guard, at best and prison at worst upon his return.
Rosa Pereira dos Santos, 51, his nurse in Rio, said she could not fight back the tears at the British fugitive's departure.
"I don't trust the authorities in England to look after him," she said.
While The Sun devoted several pages to glorifying the escaped convict Biggs, its rival, the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail spoke to the family of Jack Mills, the driver of the Glasgow to London postal train which was robbed in 1963, who was knocked out by an iron bar during the attack.
Mills never returned to work and never really recovered from the attack. He died of cancer in 1970.
"Criminal" was the headline in Monday's Mirror, indignant that its rival The Sun was bringing Biggs back aboard a luxury jet.
"Anger of the families blighted for life by that night of horror" was the Mail headline.
The quality broadsheet papers devoted less space to Biggs.
Biggs was considered the brains behind the 1963 robbery. He was condemned to 30 years in prison in 1964 but escaped the following year and has been on the run ever since.
He initially fled to France for plastic surgery to disguise his appearance, recovered in Spain and spent time in Australia before settling in Brazil in 1970.
In 1981, the robber was kidnapped in Rio by a gang of adventurers and smuggled to Barbados by boat, bound and gagged in a sack marked "live snake."
Their aim was to bring him back to Britain. But the Barbados High Court refused to allow his extradition and Biggs returned to Brazil. - Sapa-AFP