Biggs marrying in prison

Train robber Ronnie Biggs was today getting married behind bars at Belmarsh top-security prison.

The former fugitive was tying the knot with Raimunda Rothen, the mother of his son Michael, in a closed ceremony at the south east London jail where he is serving a 30-year sentence.

Biggs, 72, proposed four times to Raimunda, 54, who accepted because she feared the ailing convict is nearing the end of his life.

He has suffered four strokes and is partially paralysed.

The service at 10am will be attended by Michael, 27, his girlfriend Veronica and their two-year-old daughter Ingrid, plus a handful of guests.

Raimunda, who currently lives in Switzerland, has visited Biggs several times since he gave up his life on the run and returned to the UK in May last year.

She agreed to marry him because she was "extremely worried" about his ailing health, said a family spokeswoman.

She added: "Ronnie has expressed himself delighted that Raimunda has finally agreed to marry him. He has always believed it to be the best way of keeping the family together."

The service was being conducted by Rev David Powe, and Biggs’s solicitor, Richard Mallett, would also be present.

Biggs was part of a gang that ambushed a Glasgow-to-London night train in August 1963.

He was caught and jailed, but escaped after 15 months and fled abroad, spending most of his fugitive years in Rio de Janeiro.

When he returned voluntarily last year, he was sent to Belmarsh to serve the remaining 28 years of his sentence.

The Home Office declined to comment on the wedding.