Biggs could be discharged in days

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Great Train Robber Ronnie Biggs could be moved from his hospital bed by the weekend, his legal adviser has said.

Biggs, who was granted compassionate release from his prison sentence last week, is undergoing minor surgery to replace a feeding tube.

The 80-year-old has pneumonia and is being treated at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital.

His legal adviser Giovanni di Stefano said he hoped Biggs could be moved to a care home in London by the weekend.

Biggs, who turned 80 on Saturday, the 46th anniversary of the robbery, has seen his health improve and his family hope to move him to a care home as soon as possible, Mr di Stefano said.

"We hope by the weekend or early next week if the doctors think it is appropriate he can be transferred," he said.

I've got a bit of living to do yet Ronnie Biggs

"Of course he will still be under 24-hour care. He's still very ill indeed."

On Sunday, Biggs said he wanted to carry on living "to spite those who want me dead".

He said: "I've got a bit of living to do yet."

Last Friday, the prison guards watching Biggs were withdrawn from his bedside after his formal release papers were signed.

Justice Secretary Jack Straw said he was releasing Biggs because he was "gravely ill".

Biggs was in his mid-30s when he went on the run

Five weeks earlier he rejected a recommendation by the parole board that Biggs be freed, accusing him of being "unrepentant".

Biggs was part of a 15-strong gang which attacked the Glasgow to London mail train at Ledburn, Buckinghamshire in 1963 and made off with £2.6m.

The train's driver, Jack Mills, suffered head injuries during the robbery.

Biggs, from Lambeth, south London, was given a 30-year sentence but escaped after 15 months and lived in Australia and Brazil, where his son Michael was born.

He returned to the UK voluntarily in 2001 and was sent back to prison.

Since then his health has deteriorated and he has suffered a series of strokes.