Train robbers ‘cash in’

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34128, 14 April 1976, Page 21

Train robbers ‘cash in’

(N.Z. Press Assn — Copyright) . LONDON, April 13. j British railwaymen; have reacted angrily to' plans by members of the i Great Train Robbery j gang to form a company ■ to “cash in” on their I crime. The secretary of the Nat-; ional Union of Railwaymen. Mr Sidney Weighed. said yesterday that it was a sad indictment of the penal system that this should be possible so soon after the robbery. During the 2.5 m raid in Buckinghamshire in 1963. the train driver. Mr Jack Mills, was savagely coshed, and was never able to return to work., He has since died. I

; “Some of the men responjsible are now being given [ publicity worthy of heroes,” IMr Weighell said. I The railwaymen’s anger :was aroused when one of [the robbers, Mr Douglas I Goody, took his first step ■ [into legitimate business. Re- ' leased last year after serving ; 12 years of a 30-year sentence, he opened a second'hand furniture store in the London suburb of Putney — and received front-page publicity. Last week one of his part-, ners in the crime, Mr James Hussey, opened a plush restaurant in the busy West I End, and Mr Goody sc'di (yesterday that he would do l 'the same as soon as he could obtain the necessary [licence. I Mr Hussey, who served 11

years of a 30-year sentence,; and Mr Goody are two of th e 10 gang-members who are forming a limited company. They have appointed a full-time press officer who will handle all offers and resultant deals for companymembers to write definitive accounts of the Royal Maili hold-up, and for television; and radio appearances. Three of the gang are still ' behind bars, but are due for release soon. Mr Goody a former hairdresser who wore Savile Row suits and carried a joke-a-minute smile, would not talk about his new' enterprise. Dressed in a T-shirt and scruffy jeans, and sporting a scraggy mop of hair, he told a reporter- “T’tn saying nothing Go away,”