LONDON, England - Ronnie Biggs, 79, notorious for his role in the Great Train Robbery of 1963 and then three decades as a celebrity fugitive in Brazil, was denied parole Wednesday on grounds that he is "wholly unrepentant".

"Mr Biggs chose to serve only one year of a 30-year sentence before he took the personal decision to commit another offence and escape from prison, avoiding capture by travelling abroad for 35 years whilst outrageously courting the media," British Justice Secretary Jack Straw said.

"Had he complied with his sentence, he would have been a free man many years ago," added Straw in a statement.

"Biggs chose not to obey the law and respect the punishments given to him - the legal system in this country deserves more respect than this."

Biggs' lawyer Giovanni Di Stefano called the decision "perverse" and "obscene", saying his client had had three strokes and was very ill.

"All the other (Great Train Robbers) served a third of their sentences. Why should Mr Biggs be different?" he told the BBC.

Biggs was taken to hospital in Norwich, eastern England, last weekend with a broken hip and chest infection, his son Michael revealed at the time, while in February he was hospitalised with pneumonia.

The Great Train Robbery saw a 15-strong gang hold up a London to Glasgow mail train, making off with 2.6 million pounds in the money of the day at a railway bridge in Buckinghamshire. Most of the loot was never recovered.

Biggs played a minor role in the hold-up but was jailed for 30 years in 1964. He subsequently escaped by scaling the wall of the prison and jumping onto the roof of a furniture van.

He fled to France, where he had plastic surgery, and Spain before heading to Australia. But he eventually settled in Brazil, where he was often pictured in British newspapers enjoying a party.

Detectives travelled to Brazil in 1974 in the hope of catching him, but they were thwarted because Biggs by then had his son, Michael, with his Brazilian girlfriend, making him legally untouchable.

He nevertheless handed himself over to the British authorities in 2001 amid a blaze of publicity, saying he wanted to see his homeland and enjoy a pint of beer by the seaside before he died, and was sent back to jail.

Michael Biggs said Straw's decision to deny his father parole "beggars belief" and vowed to keep on fighting for his freedom.

"If this is the British legal system, it is appalling," he said, insisting his father had "paid his debt to society".

He described his father as being "totally incapacitated", adding: "He cannot walk, he cannot talk, he cannot read or write, he cannot drink - how can he take any reoffending courses?"

Prison Reform Trust, a campaign group, said the government was "condemning a sick, elderly man to spend what seem from reports to be his dying months in prison."