Biggs 'over the moon' at release

But Biggs, who is severely ill with pneumonia, may spend his last days in hospital and doctors have said there is "not much hope" for him.

Michael Biggs said his father, who has suffered three strokes and cannot talk, used a spelling board to express his joy.

He added that his father was sorry he committed a crime but repentance was "something that you deal with priests".

Biggs is due to undergo minor surgery to change a tube in his stomach. His family hopes he will survive long enough to see his 80th birthday on Saturday - 46 years to the day since the robbery.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw granted the compassionate release after medics said his condition had deteriorated and he was not expected to recover.

Speaking outside Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital, Michael Biggs said: "As a family we're absolutely delighted, common sense has prevailed.

"I've just been able to spend some time with my father and he in his own words, it took him a long time using a spelling board but he is over the moon. We are very hopeful that my father will be able to survive the next few days."

Biggs, from Lambeth, south London, was a member of a 15-strong gang which attacked the Glasgow to London mail train at Ledburn, Buckinghamshire, in August 1963, and made off with £2.6 million in used banknotes.

He was given a 30-year sentence but after 15 months he escaped from Wandsworth prison in south-west London by climbing a 30ft wall and fleeing in a furniture van. Biggs was on the run for more than 30 years, living in Australia and Brazil before returning to the UK voluntarily in 2001 to hand himself in.