Great Train Robbery: Ronnie Biggs speaks out on 50th anniversary saying he was 'proud' of the heist Check out all the latest News, Sport & Celeb gossip at Mirror.co.uk http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ronnie-biggs-speaks-out-50th-2100260#ixzz2ac9nXfcR Follow us: @DailyMirror on Twitter | DailyMirror on Facebook

All pensioners look back with pride on certain aspect of their lives – personal achievements, marriage, children, grandkids… But for Ronnie Biggs one of his proudest moments is being part of a ­ruthless gang that carried out one of the biggest heists in British criminal history – the Great Train Robbery. As the 50th anniversary of the 1963 raid that shocked the nation approaches, the 83-year-old insisted he was delighted to have been involved in the crime. Ailing Biggs, who cannot speak and communicates through a spelling board, said: “If you want to ask me if I have any regrets about being one of the train robbers, my answer is, ‘no’.” I will go further: I am proud to have been one of them. I am equally happy to be described as the ‘teaboy’ or ‘The Brain’. “I was there that August night and that is what counts. “I am one of the few witnesses, living or dead, to what was the crime of the century.” The Glasgow-London Royal mail train, which was attacked in the night by 15 armed robbers The Glasgow-London Royal mail train attacked by Ronnie and his gang Getty Biggs will celebrate his 84th birthday on August 8, the same day as the anniversary of the robbery that netted the gang £2.6million. And while age has clearly not softened his feelings towards the crime – during which driver Jack Mills was coshed and never fully recovered – the former villain admits harbouring some regrets about the night that changed the lives of both the robbers and its victims. He said: “It is regrettable the train driver was injured. And he was not the only victim. The people who paid the heaviest price for the Great Train Robbery are the families. “The families of everyone involved in the Great Train Robbery – and from both sides of the track. “All have paid a price for our collective involvement in the robbery. A very heavy price, in the case of my family. For that, I do have my regrets.” The heist took place after the robbers stopped the London-bound overnight mail train from Glasgow near Cheddington, Bucks, at 3am. Police eventually rounded up most of the gang and Biggs was jailed. Part of the £2.5 million stolen by the Great Train Robbers Part of the £2.6 million loot PA But he escaped in 1965 and spent 36 years on the run abroad before finally being arrested and locked up in 2001 after he returned from Rio de Janeiro where he had been living. Four years ago Biggs was released from prison on compassionate grounds due to ill health. He is being cared for in a North London nursing home. A new book which promises to tell the complete story of the heist has been published to mark the anniversary. Biggs contributed to the book, called The Great Train Robbery – 50th ­Anniversary – 1963-2013, as did his accomplice Bruce Reynolds, who died in February. It was written by Reynolds’ son Nick, and Biggs’ autobiographer Chris Pickard. Artist and musician Nick said they embarked on the project with the aim of “setting the record straight” and putting right any inaccuracies in a tale that has become folklore. The 51-year-old added: “I said to my dad, would you be interested if we were to do a sort of ‘round-up’ 50 years on and so he said yes. Unfortunately he died before we finished it, but he contributed a fair bit, as did Ron. “One of my dad’s biggest regrets was the driver should never have been hit. The plan was to get the driver to drive the train. It was only if he refused that they had Ronnie Biggs’ standby driver. “There was no intention to hit him, it was completely unnec­essary. From that point of view my dad had regrets.” But Nick revealed that like Biggs, his father had no other regrets about taking part in the heist. He added: “My dad said if he was asked would he have done it today knowing everything if he was the same age, yes he would have done. “He was a bit of a crazy adventurer if you like.” Mr Pickard, 56, who became friends with Biggs after they met in Rio, told how nobody believed the robber would live to see the 50th anniversary as he was so sick when he was released. He said: “He was an extremely ill man. At least twice the hospital had called Michael his son and said, ‘You had better come, it’s a matter of hours’. “But once he was released and could be treated in hospital, the doctors managed to stem the infection. “Ron is a great fighter. I think when he thought he wasn’t going to be released he thought, ‘I’ve had enough of this’. But once he knew he was going to be released he had something to fight for. “Slowly and slowly he pulled himself round. But he is still a very, very ill man. He could pop off at any time. “I would never have put money on him seeing the 50th anniversary. We never thought he’d survive a month in prison here, let alone what he has done.” http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ronnie-biggs-speaks-out-50th-2100260