Page 185 - Once a copper 10 03 2020

Barbados, where he was arrested. After a month the case against him was
dismissed and Biggs was free to return to Rio.

In October 1984 Reynolds was sent back to prison for three years for handling
amphetamine sulphate, but was released in March 1985.

On 15 September 1988, the world premiere of Buster was held at the Odeon
Leicester Square. A year later, the BBC screened The Great Paper Chase, a
play based on Anthony Delano’s book Slip-Up. In 1990 Jack Slipper was
awarded £50,000 in damages for libel.

On 26 July 1989 Tommy Wisbey and Jimmy Hussey were convicted for
trafficking cocaine. They were sentenced to 10 and 7 years respectively. On
24 April 1990, Charlie Wilson was found murdered at his house in Spain. He
was buried in the UK on 10 May.

On 27 July 1990 an arrest warrant was issued for Biggs at Bow Street
Magistrates Court. The same document would be used when he returned to
the UK in 2001.

Lord Edmund Davies, the judge at the Great Train Robbery trial, died on 26
December 1992. In June 1993 Jack Slipper, now retired, visited Biggs in Rio for
the Sunday Express. In March 1994 Roy James was sentenced to six year for
attacking his ex-wife and shooting his father-in-law.

Buster Edwards after he was released, became a flower seller outside
Waterloo station. His story was dramatised in the 1988 film Buster, with Phil
Collins in the title role. Edwards died in a garage in November 1994, allegedly
committing suicide by hanging himself. His family continued to run the flower
stall after his death.

Bruce Reynolds published his Autobiography of a Thief in April 1995.
On 20 August 1997, Roy James died of a heart attack. Biggs suffered his first
stroke in March 1998.

Bruce Reynolds and his son Nick joined Biggs in Rio on 8 August 1999 to
celebrate Biggs’ 70th birthday and the 36th anniversary of the robbery. They
returned to Rio again in 2001 to help Biggs return to the UK.
Biggs arrived back in the UK on 7 May 2001 after being on the run for a total
13,068 days. He was sent to the maximum-security prison of HMP Belmarsh
with still 28 years of his sentence to serve.

Jack Slipper of the Metropolitan Police was promoted to Detective Chief
Superintendent. He became so involved in the case that he continued to
hunt many of the escaped robbers after he retired. He believed Biggs should
not be released after returning to the UK in 2001 and he often appeared in Page185