Jail-breaker mocks Britain’s police

Press, 17 August 1978, Page 17

Jail-breaker mocks Britain’s police

This month, a heavilybuilt balding man in a floral shirt will raised his glass of cold white wine in a mocking salute to the forces of law and order —and celebrated the fifteenth anniversary of that S4IM landmark in criminal history, the Great Train Robbery. “Things didn’t work out quite how we’d planned.” savs Ronald Arthur Biggs, standing under the palm trees of his home m Sepetiba on the Brazil coast near Rio. "But this is a hell of a sight better than being in jail. . • Todav, the man who was jailed for 30 years for his part in stopping the Glasgow-to-London mail train on a lonely stretch of Buckinghamshire track, spends his divs on the Brazilian beaches, and his nights reading novels, writing poetry and doing small carpentry jobs for friends and neighbours. But most of the time he spends with his girlfriends. ranging front a Brazilian blonde to a Ger man commercial artist, who seemingly devote most of their time to making sure that Ronnie Biggs the life of ease to which he has now become accustomed. He had served less than two years of his 30-year sentence before he made his epic escape from London’s Wandsworth jail, crossed three continents, and finally took up an uneasy exile in Brazil. “Without a work permit

I would have starved,” he says, “if it hadn’t been for the women who came into my life. I owe them everything — my liberty and my life as well.” The loyalty of the glamorous bevy of women who helped cushion that exile is remarkable, and made even more so by the fact that they know they are only sharing him with others. The list includes Rai-

rnunda de Castro, the exotic dancer whom he calls “Minha Indiazinha” (My Little Indian); Ursula e ‘Ula” Sophir, a sophisticated Argentinian-Danish divorcee living in Rio; Brigitte Bruns, a German commercial artist also living in Rio; 24-year-old Elizabeth de Medicis; and his former wife, Charmian. Raimunda set the pattern by risking her life to give him his son Michael,

who keeps him free. The Brazilian authorities refused to deport the father of a Brazilian child. “Doctors in the hospital advised me to have an abortion,” explains Raimunda. “They told me that otherwise it could be very dangerous; but I would willingly have died for that man. I loved him so. “Life is a lot easier for Mike (the name by which

she has always known Biggs), nowadays. In the beginning, it was very hard for us. “Because we had no money to pay the bills, they took away the furniture, cut off the electricity and the gas. They left us with a bed and nothing else. “But times have changed. Money has come in from books and television; that is why I can

leave him sometimes.” She smiled and added: “I know he won't be lonely.” Biggs pays $35 a week for' his house, set in an acre of garden, which would cost SIB,OOO to buy outright, and has planted some very English roses by the door. The improvement in his fortunes has been brought about largely by two deals. He received S7OOO from his share of a recent book on the Great Train Robbery and a further SI7OO from a West German television network who produced a documenta ary upon his escape. Denied both a work permit and a driving licence, most of Biggs’ days are spent lazing on the sands, often in the company of Elizabeth who sports the briefest of bikinis. “Isn’t she lovely?” says Biggs. ‘ All this and heaven, too. You see Ula is a very liberal lady.” Ula is his pet name for Ursula Sophir who has been perhaps his most regular girl friend over the last three years. He usually stays with her when he’s in Rio. She is reputed to have a good business brain and to have helped ease some of ■-.he train robber’s most pressing financial problems. The S7OOO from the publishers, for instance, was paid to him through Ursula. “Ula’s been my sheet

anchor,” says Biggs. “Without her nothing could have happened.” But his days in Rio are not spent exclusively with Ursula. His time is shared with the 35-year old Brigitte Bruns and neither of the women seem to mind. “Ula knows all about my affair with Ronald,” says Brigitte. “But it doesn’t matter. Ula and I are very good friends and wise enough to realise that he’s too much of a CasanOva to be tied exclusively to one girl.” But doesn’t the competition sometimes worry her? She shakes her head emphatically. “How could it? There are so many. You could maybe become jealous if there was just one rival, but not when you know there are halfa dozen or more.” The love life of Ronald Biggs has become even more tangled with the news that his former wife Charmian is anxious to be reconciled, and, according to friends, is planning to fly to Brazil. If these romantic permutations weigh the man down, it doesn’t show. “It’s a funny sort, of life,” he says. “I seem to spend my time lying around on the beach reading books, writing a bit of poetry, and playing with my little boy. “It may not be perfect — but it sure beats a prison cell.”

By

ROY SMITH,

Features International