Ronnie Biggs broke legal records last week when his lawyers applied for leave to appeal the Great Train Robber's 30-year sentence, 39 years after he received it.

Biggs was convicted for his part in the ambush of a Glasgow-to-London train 40 years ago, which netted his gang 2.6 million in cash.

He is in the hospital wing of London's Belmarsh prison serving the remainder of the 30-year sentence that was interrupted after 15 months when he escaped from Wandsworth prison in 1965.

After years on the run, mostly in Brazil, he returned to Britain in May 2001, when he was arrested.

An application to Aylesbury Crown Court last week requested leave to appeal on grounds ranging from Biggs' poor health to disparity between his sentence and that given to the other robbers.

Last year, an application to the Criminal Cases Review Commission was turned down.

Nigel Sangster QC, the head of St Paul's Chambers in Leeds who is representing Biggs, said: 'I've never heard of leave to appeal being requested after 39 years...

but then you won't find any precedent for someone being asked to recommence a 30-year prison term 27 years after sentence.'

'Mr Biggs is in a very poor state of health...

he needs permanent health care, is being fed through a tube and cannot speak.'

It is understood that Mr Sangster and Steven Barker - a partner with London firm Barker Gillette acting for Biggs - may be seeking to exhaust UK remedies for appeal before applying to the European Court of Human Rights.

Jeremy Fleming