Page 181 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

spectacular roof top chase. Evidence was prints on a plate and Johnson’s
First Aid Travel Kit.

Buster Edwards left England for Antwerp and moved on to Cologne. Jimmy
White fled to Tangier.

A gang solicitor, George Stanley confirmed to Wilson and Biggs that the main
evidence against the gang was indeed fingerprints at the farm. Stanley told
Wilson and Biggs to come up with a reason as to why they might have visited
the farm that is not connected to the robbery. Biggs would famously say he
had gone to build a whipping post for kinky parties.

Butler told the media that now he had 19 people in custody, he was ready to
start the court case. In fact only 9 of the 16 people at the track were in
custody (Wilson, Goody, James, Daly, Biggs, Cordrey, Wisbey, Welch, Hussey).

Gang members were moved to the hospital wing of HMP Aylesbury for the
trial to begin. Experienced prison guards were brought in to “babysit” the
gang. Goody, Wilson and Biggs worked on an escape plan. The escape plan
very nearly came off, but Bill Boal lost his nerve on the night. All the privileges
were withdrawn and items smuggled in were confiscated.

The Trial, Sentencing, Escapes & Releases

The Great Train Robbery trial opened on 20 January 1964 at the District
Council Chamber in Aylesbury. Lord Chief Justice Edmund Davies was the
presiding judge. The gang was transported each day from the prison to the
court in a heavily guarded police bus.

The charge was ‘conspiracy to stop a mail with intent to rob said mail’.
Caught “bang to rights”, Cordrey pleaded guilty. Finger print evidence was
presented and Jack Mills, the coshed train driver gave evidence.
On 6 February the retrial of Ronald Biggs was ordered after Inspector Basil
Morris lets slip that Biggs had served time in prison. On 11 February the
prosecution rested and the defence started. The defence won a quick
victory when on 14 February John Daly was acquitted. He was charge on the
basis of fingerpints on the Monopoly set that the court believed he had
handled prior to Leatherslade Fam.

The trial’s summing up took four days. What was agreed was that the
prosecution could not prove who had been at the track, even how many.
Instead the jury were told that the prosecution’s case was to link Leatherslade
Farm to the robbery, and if they could place people at the farm this was
proof enough of their guilt in the train robbery.

On 23 March the jury retired after a 49-day trial. The trial formally ended on 26 Page181
March with a guilty verdict on all the gang members charged.